LIB RARY OF CONG RESS. 

@§apX-*?-- ©opijrigftt Ifo. 

Shelf -JM.. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 



\\r 



J. W. DONOVAN, 



Author of "Modern Jury Trials," "Skill in Trials," 
"Tact in Court," etc. 




MWH- 



Oj&~* 



COLLECTOR PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 

1895. 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1895, by The 

Collector Publishing Company, in the office of the 

Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



Have you been called on for remarks at a soldiers' re- 
union, a salesmen's banquet, a welcome to druggists, Ma- 
sons or Maccabees; an address to the Home of the Friend- 
less, the closing of a school term, the graduation of young 
doctors, lawyers, or a Sunday school picnic; a Fourth of 
July, Washington or Lincoln's birthday, the founding of a 
school or the presentation of a flag; on Memorial Day oc- 
casions, on children's day in the churches; a welcome to 
Sir Knights and an infinite variety of similar topics? If 
you have not, you have yet to run the gauntlet of a popu- 
lar advocate and had better be posted in season. 

The best time to prepare for it, is the earliest day possi- 
ble. As a builder provides material and puts his tools 
in order, so you will gain by a thorough preparation. It 
will be too late by and by when a score of your comrades 
have outrun you in the arena of life and you have only 
criticised them — it will be too late then to start over again. 
You will be a stronger, braver, readier speaker to read up 
and enlarge your storehouse of information. To one who 
spurned to learn of any but old masters, Cicero and De- 
mosthenes, Clay and Webster — and never, in fact, learned 
of anybody and simply threw clubs at those who made 
progress, we offer no encouragement. But to one who 
can see flowers even on thorn bushes and know real wisdom 
is born of struggle and experience, tnat the nearer we are 



VI. 



to the struggle itself, the more we will gain by its inspira- 
tion, this work may be useful. 

Much of it is made up of shorthand reports, dictated to 
meet a demand from hundreds of hungry students that I 
am no longer able to supply by letter — time to rewrite be- 
ing beyond command. Public speakers do not need many 
reasons why. They want facts, precedents, matter and in- 
spiration. They will do their own pruning, cutting and 
selecting. If some young man, who has learned life's les- 
son by struggle, shall preserve what others have gained 
by like struggles, and profit by it, this may form a part of 
his mental bank account to add to and accumulate. 

The greatest study of history is to know men. Books 
are what men have thought or found and had printed — no 
more. While you stop to criticise, are you yet per- 
fect? As to the effect of eloquence, let me repeat what I 
have said once with emphasis: I have heard Gen. Butler 
in his powerful philippic on an Indianapolis editor, when 
hundreds stood upon the seats and shouted, "Hit him 
again ! Give it to 'im ! ! (smiting their hands together), Give 
it to 'im ! !" until I realized the force of "fighting 1 ' eloquence. 
I have heard Gough give his nineteen rewards to the faith- 
ful, looking up toward the heavens with expanded nerves, 
and eyes dilated, face all ablaze with magnetism, hands 
charged with electricity, and tones tuned with the finest 
melody. I have seen Benjamin F. Taylor when he 
marched the forces up the sides of Lookout Mountain, and 
pictured the battle above the clouds with lifelike energy — 



vu. 



pictured it so graphically that we could almost hear the 
final shout of victory that shook the hills of Tennessee, 
when the boys in gray retreated from the boys in blue. I 
have heard the echoing shout receding over Cemetery Hill, 
caught up by Union forces and carried through the ranks 
of the entire army of the Cumberland; I saw the audience 
sit spellbound at the close, dismissed by a waive of the 
chairman's hand, so touched by the grandeur of the scene 
that they marched out in silence from college chapel, and 
I called that eloquence — but it was imaginary. I have 
heard Phillips describe the conduct of a heroic general till 
he called before us the mighty dead, like Napoleon, Wel- 
lington and Alexander, and "dipping his finger in the sun- 
light," write on the blue arch of Heaven the name of his 
brilliant hero, and I was thrilled by his graphic descrip- 
tion, and even that was imaginary. And when a real pic- 
ture came before me in a New York court room, and 
Beach was the champion of a wife discarded by a wealthy 
husband, and when I heard him rehearse her wrongs, and 
tell her simple story to a jury, and listened to their verdict 
of heavy damages, I knew, and felt, and realized the power 
and force of eloquence, and thought it would be instructive 
to repeat it, and describe it as a lesson to advocates and 
ambitious lawyers. 

Many sentences, having application to different topics, 
are purposely repeated, both for emphasis and to show their 
varied application. Seward well said: "If one makes 
many speeches he repeats some sentiments, even if not in 



Vlll. 



the same language." But all good songs and sayings are 
repeated — the oftener the better, if they teach good les- 
sons. Phillips repeated his lecture on "Lost Arts" for thirty 
years and pleased many thousands by it. Jefferson repeated 
his "Rip Van Winkle" twenty-six years in succession 
and Ole Bull played eighteen years on his violin before he 
really loved it, and then he said the very fibres of the wood, 
the strings and keys and bow all made music in his soul 
till it thrilled like a passion and moved his hearers like a 
song. 

Detroit, June, 1895. J. W. D. 



INDEX. 



A 

Page 

American Boy— The 3 

Addresses to Societies and 

Social Gatherings 63 

Address to School of Industry 69 
Address to Medical Students 70 
Address to Retail Grocers... 91 

Australia — In 151 

Accused— Defending the 160 

Affections— Curtis on 182 

Alcohol— Ingersoll on 204 

Art of Speaking 236 

B 

Blaine, James G 59 

Books as Friends 106 

Boy Lawyers 146 

Bible— Mathews on 190 

Beach on Beecher 193 

Banquet— San Francisco 262 

Bell— The Fox and the 266 

O 

Citizenship 35 

(From a Speech by Senator 
Frye.) 

Columbian Day 44 

Cheerful Salesman— The 65 

Character 110 

(Extract from Bishop New- 
man's Address.) 

Crown— The Men We 163 

Commerce — Depew on 174 

Crittenden on Self -Defense... 187 

Commerce — Maybury on 187 

Curtis on Affections 182 

Capital— Speakers' 210 

D 

Druggists— Welcome to 88 

Defending the Accused 160 

Defense— The Teacher's 165 

Depew on Commerce 174 

Debate— Silver 196 



E 

Page 

Elements of Happiness 101 

Eloquence 239 

Extraordinary— Pleading 267 

(Selected.) 



F 

Flag— The 48 

Farmer Boy— The 76 

Friendship 96 

Fortunes — Lawyers' 143 

Fathers— In the Sight of 163 

Fox and the Bell— The 266 



G 

Grocers— Retail— Address to.. 91 

Great Speeches 148 

Grain Gambling 156 

Gordon's Plea for Mercy 188 

Genius of Oratory— The 207 

Genius of Pleasure— The 248 

H 

Hand— Miser's 258 

I 
In the Sight of the Fathers.. 163 
Ingersoll on Alcohol 204 

K 

King— A Story of 264 

L 

Lincoln as a Genius 12 

Lincoln Election— A 33 

La Fayette 54 

(From a beautiful address 
to the Michigan Club by 
Henry D. Estabrook, of 
Omaha.) 

Law— Starting in 122 

Lawyers as Leaders 125 



Page 

Lawyers— "Wealthy 132 

Lawyers Talking Too Much.. 134 

Lawyer on His Merits 136 

Little Things 139 

Lawyers' Fortunes 143 

Lawyer's Boy 146 

Log Cabin Days 149 

Lincoln's Art in Court 159 

Lost by Latin 255 

Latin— Lost by 255 

Lycurgus— The Law-Giver — 260 
Little Stories 263 

M 

McKinley— Gov. on Our Na- 
tional Credit 1 

Make Him Our King 30 

Medical Students— Address to 70 

Maccabees— Welcome 84 

Miscellaneous Addresses, Quo- 
tations, Etc 96 

Money Making 152 

Men We Crown— The 163 

Maybury on Commerce 187 

Mathews on the Bible 190 

Marshall's Oratory 243 

Miser's Hand 258 

N 

Newsboys— A Talk to 86 

O 

Orators and Oratory 112 

(From Donovan's Trial 
Practice.) 

On His Merits 136 

Oratory— The Genius of 207 

Orators and Oratory 222 

(Selected— Modern Jury Trials.) 
Oratory— Marshall's 243 

P 

Patriotic Addresses 1 

Points on Saving Money 63 

Plea for Mercy— Gordon's 188 

Preparation of Speeches 207 



Page 

Pleasure — The Genius of 248 

Pinch of the Bent 256 

(Story.) 
Pleading Extraordinary 267 

(Selected.) 

R 

Retail Grocers— Address to 91 

S 
Soldier's Reward— The 37 

(Address to Old Soldiers.) 
School of Industry— Address 

to 69 

Stars of the Churches— The.. 73 
Societies and Social Gather-; 

ings— Addresses to 63 

Starting in Law 122 

Speeches— Great 148 

Sketch— A Thrilling 150 

Self-Defense— Crittenden on.. 187 

Silver Debate 196 

Speeches— Preparation of 207 

Speakers' Capital 210 

Speaking— Style of 211 

Speaking— Art of 236 

Short Stories 249 

Story— Pinch of the Bent 256 

San Francisco Banquet 262 

Stories— Little 263 

Story of a King 264 

T 

Talk to Newsboys— A 86 

Talking Too Much 134 

Thrilling Sketch 150 

Teacher's Defense 165 

The Higher— The Grander. ... 270 

(Address to a High School 

Graduating Class.) 



\V 

Welcome Maccabees 84 

Welcome to Druggists 88 

Well-Bought Goods 91 

Wealthy Lawyers 1S2 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



CHAPTER I. 



PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 

ooy. Mckinley on our national credit— the Ameri- 
can BOY— LINCOLN AS A GENIUS— A LINCOLN ELEC- 
TION—CITIZENSHIP—THE SOLDIER'S REWARD — CO- 
LUMBIAN DAY— THE FLAG— LA FAYETTE— INGE R SO LL 
NOMINATING BLAINE. 



GOV. McKINLEY ON OUR NATIONAL CREDIT. 



The United States need not go abroad to find purchasers 
for its bonds. The patriotic people of this country stand 
quite ready to take all that may be offered, and pay for 
them in as good money as the financiers of Europe. We 
ought to appreciate by this time that we should neither do 
our work nor make our loans in Europe. Let us place our 
options with our own capitalists, and let us place our orders 
with our own manufacturers who, in the past, have been 
quite capable to answer every need and demand of the 
government and of the people. 



2 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Who has questioned the good faith of the government of 
the United States? When did it ever fail to meet the high- 
est requirements of national and commercial integrity? 
Answer me that! 

Its financial honor is without taint; it has always been 
above and beyond suspicion. 

The government faith cannot be prescribed by the lan- 
guage of the bond; it can neither be enhanced or abated by 
the mere words of the contract. Our national honor is far 
above the quibble of the ordinary debtor. The government 
has established its credit, and the highest financial standing 
in the world, by paying its creditors in the money, not of 
the contract merely, but in that money which the whole 
civilized world regarded as the best in existence at the 
time of payment. 

Every obligation of the government rests upon the 
honor of the government, and in whatever payment 
the highest honor of the government suggests, in 
that the government has always paid and always will 
pay. It never took advantage of a creditor at home nor 
a creditor abroad. It sold its bonds during the stress of war 
at whatever price it could get, and when the great war 
ended it marched steadily up to the very highest standard 
of payment. 

Let us provide somehow, and in some sensible, patriotic 
way, for the collection of enough money annually to pay 
all our current expenses, and let it be large enough to pay 
all pensions justly due our soldiers and sailors in all the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 3 

wars of the Republic. Let it be enough to maintain with 
vigor our navy and diplomatic services and abundantly sup- 
port every branch of the government, without parsimony 
or extravagance. If this cannot be done now — if the pres- 
ent Congress and administration are unable to do it — then 
the only thing we can do to bridge over the trouble is to 
borrow the money to do it. But it should be remembered 
that this will only be a temporary cure and provision. 
What we want — what we must have — is enough money to 
run the government, and it must be borne in mind con- 
stantly that we have the best government and highest civili- 
zation to maintain of any government and civilization of 
the world. 



THE AMERICAN BOY. 



"It is a wise man that carries his boy heart up into man- 
hood." 

The American Girl is a familiar theme. Her portrait 
is painted in short or, long dresses, with curious 
costumes and strange designs. She is seen, and known, 
and remembered by the masses, from the day she emerges 
as a sweet girl graduate, to the hour of her grander wed- 
ding march and triumphal bridal tour. She is pictured at 
the charity dance, and described on the burning sands of 



4 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

the sea shore, in the raging surf, or marching off by moon- 
light, leaning on the arm of a wealthy merchant, in a 
maiden's dream of ideal happiness — and then — and then — 
she is forgotten. 

But the American Boy, who is he? where is he? what 
is he? and how does he reach the high rounds of fame's 
tall ladder and become rich or honored? 

In early days he had one of four qualities to make him 
famous, either a good woodchopper, a great wrestler, a 
fine cradler, or an athlete. When the country was new 
and log cabin raisings were more frequent than league 
games of base ball, the woodchopper of three cords a day 
was known and noted for miles around his neighborhood. 
When barn raisings ended with a grand dinner and a hur- 
rah, the climax was reached in a matched wrestle, where the 
idol of the town could throw his rival in three out of five 
rounds in a splendid physical contest — then he was a hero. 
When the wheat harvesting was done by hand, the evening 
story tellers doted on the four-acre-a-day cradler, and cor- 
ner grocery gatherings told of the heavy lifter who could 
shoulder a full flour barrel. 

But all of these boys have passed away. Their places 
are filled with fast oarsmen or curve pitchers. The 
scenes of amusement are moved into cities. The American 
boy is no longer an obscure quantity. He is a factor in 
society, an element of speculation — something to draw on 
tor amusement. The rugged labor that made Lincoln fa- 
mous with the pioneers of Illinois, and fought the great 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 5 

battle with the Michigan wilderness and won it, is almost 
forgotten in the struggle for the pennant in a base ball 
contest, or of the labor leadership in a country that can keep 
its chief organizer on a salary far above the net earnings of 
President Washington. 

The American Boy is a traveler on a fast express. If he 
is a printer without fortune, he can live by his wits a 
half year in New York, a quarter year in England, a winter 
in France, and a summer in Germany, a vacation in China, 
and a season at Salt Lake or San Francisco. 

The space for the American Boy is unbounded, for the 
English speaking race is fast spreading over the globe, 
and the boy is always first in work, first in play, and 
first in the scenes of invention and discovery. The room in 
his own country gives him courage for big undertakings, 
and confidence to reach out after new opportunities. He is 
a far-seeing statesman, and an unyielding competitor. 

If you take the wings of the morning and fly away to 
Birmingham, San Diego, Tacoma or St. Paul, even there 
you will find the young American merchant in all his 
glory. He may have bought farms in Kansas City at $50 
an acre, and sold them in lots at $100 a foot, and yet be 
under thirty and still a millionaire, but he is a boy all 
the same, and is ready to greet you with a slap on the shoul- 
der and a hint of: "Have a quail lunch, old fellow, while 
you tell me of the boys back in Northville." It is his boy 
heart carried up into manhood that cheers him. It is his 
hope of prosperity that promotes his progress. It is his 



6 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

belief in himself that animates him. It is his thinking to the 
front that takes him there. It is his determination to reach 
a front seat in life that gives him room in the box near the 
footlights. 

The American Boy, like a poet, is born that way. There 
is no use of cutting patterns for him to follow. He will 
make patterns for himself and suited to his condition. He 
will see the world as it is. He does not need any Roman 
forums, or Grecian games to practice in. His country is 
his forum. He is an all-seeing, all-inhaling, all-around 
money-making and self-enjoying model of his own. You 
may preach him a sermon, or tell him a story; you may show 
him a play, or build him a model ; but he will hear half the 
sermon, see half the play, glance at the model, and make a 
mental improvement on the whole lot. He is a sermon. 
He is a play. He is a model. He makes all these trifles for 
himself. 

What is the use of saying new things, or strange things, 
or funny things to an American Boy? Is he not up to 
every new art, strange device or funny saying the day 
before it was uttered, invented or related? And can't he 
straightway make an improvement on it? Talk to him of 
perfection? He sees it in a flying machine. Talk to him of 
motor power, and he dreams out a storage batten-; talk of 
the printers' art, and he invents a typesetter; and away he 
goes with the discovery to the ends of the earth an hour 
later after a patent. He beats all the news carriers, and 
excels all the ages as an advance agent. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 7 

The American Boy as a city builder is a marvel. If 
Home was not built in a day, that is no sign that an- 
other city, more modern, better lighted, with broader 
streets, more opera houses, grander boulevards, finer 
railroads and faster cable cars cannot be built in a day — 
-on paper! And he builds it — for he knows how to build 
it. An older boy might hesitate and begin to quote to his 
iriends the Scotch adage, "The house never costs less than 
the builder estimated," or "Count the cost," or some such 
old-fashioned notion; but while one fellow is counting the 
cost, the other fellow (the American Boy), is laying out a 
city and building it, and selling lots at a fabulous profit. 

Shakespeare, the greatest star playwriter of his time, who 
said so much of law, medicine, love and murder, who be- 
came so elated in his art, that he called the whole world 
a stage and twitted every man and woman in it with 
being rather poor players; who told the young men how to 
dress well, before he had ever seen a standing paper 
•collar, or a red russet or patent leather shoe ; how to beware 
-of entrance to a quarrel (when he had never known how- 
little Mrs. Prof. John L. Sullivan could pound the Boston 
culture all out of such a maxim); who told the 
boys to put money in their purses, but never played 
to a six-thousand-dollar house in his life, and if he 
Tiad seen some of the Booth, Barrett, Anderson, Lang- 
try, or Irving-Terry fortunes, he would have opened his 
^eyes wider on the taking plays of the season. Or if he had 
■seen a Chicago grain dealer make a million, or a New 



8 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Yorker buy up a railroad, or followed a boodle alderman 
over into Canada, he would have a good many new point- 
ers on that "money-in-your-purse" business; yes, even 
Shakespeare was as much behind the American Boy 
in knowledge of things that are, as a sail barge is 
behind the speed of an ocean steamer. He never 
struck a curve ball; never even struck a match; never saw 
Barnum's circus; never went up in a balloon, or slept in a 
palace car across the continent; or founded a western city; 
telephoned his dinner, or heard the new Edison doll-baby 
sing the touching lullaby of "Put Me in My Little Bed,"" 
like a modern Jennie Lind. So there's no use in looking 
way backward for wonders, with plenty of them in our own 
country. We need no ancient advisers to tell young Ameri- 
can boys how to make up the earth into money. They 
know how already. They are way up in everything. 

The American Boy gets married — in America; of 
course he does; he will live longer, better, happier, and he 
gets married and that's a good notion. In marriage he is a 
free trader. He goes where the market is full of blue-blooded 
women; he goes east and moves westward. Out west 
he is a typical Yankee, for later on in the season his father- 
in-law calls out west at the ranch he has opened, and being 
intoxicated with the climate (climate is the biggest word in 
the whole western country), being made duly drunk on the 
climate, he invests his eastern money in western climate, 
where the son-in-law has the experience, and the money, 
with the experience soon becomes so equally divided that 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 9 

protection and free trade become a double blessing to the 
American Boy with his American bride and American fath- 
er-in-law. 

Does the American Boy work hard? Does he get up 
at 4 in the morning like a farmer, or a Polish car 
builder? Oh, no, not that way any longer. He 
is a manager this year. He worked very hard when. 
he started, but he got over it; he makes machines do his. 
heavy work lately. He invests money more judiciously and 
lets the other fellow do the working. It may have been 
well enough once to have been economical and save the 
pennies. Now he spends them in advertising. A country 
paper, a plat of a city, a big ranch in Texas, a charter for 
a franchise, a bank in "Cauker City;" a right of way across, 
a county; a township of pine timber; a five-million iron com- 
pany; an oil well; a hundred schemes that men invent, and 
men invest in; are made to do his bidding, just as soon as he 
knows the ropes, for he is rich, and great, and happy, hon- 
ored, and elevated because of his grasp of genius to seek and 
to find opportunities. 

The American Boy is a wide-awake traveler. He is not 
a spendthrift, but his wits sharpen, his mind enlarges,, 
his plans expand, his courage increases with this ex- 
perience. "He is a wise man who has known many- 
men and seen many cities." He has learned that a. 
home character is not enough. He needs a training out- 
side of colleges; colleges teach how things ought to be 
done; experience shows exactly how they are done. The- 



io SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

college graduate has had his ringers pinched just 
often enough to keep his eyes open. He only wishes that 
he had ventured more and taken more chances — been more 
courageous. Men must venture to make money. 

"Had I bought a farm in Chicago instead of Peoria, 
I might be a millionaire," said a western farmer. Yes, and 
so you might have been to have bought in New York, 
Buffalo, Toledo or Detroit. And so you may be yet to buy 
in any growing city. But you will not. For it takes 
nerve to make money. It takes genius to reach greatness. 
It takes courage to be successful. The boy that waits is 
never successful. He is the hard times believer, who hopes 
something may turn up, who thinks to the rear, and keeps 
in the back seat; who has a dream of progress, but dares not 
enforce his ambition; who wants to marry a fortune but 
daren't propose — till the other boy gets his girl away. 

To-day the American Boy is a moulder, or joiner; to- 
morrow a foreman, or master car-builder; next day he is at 
the head of a stove works, or car works, or owner of an 
air brake, making up the earth into money, with two thou- 
sand wage-workers looking up into his eyes in wonder how 
he got there! To him the wonder is as great as to anyone. 
But he had the courage to begin. The genius to plan. The 
perseverance to execute, and the knack of success! Every 
State has a hundred such instances. In Grand Rapids, 
Saginaw, Bay City, Detroit, Chicago and Omaha, every 
leading house and factory manager has worked up from the 
basement. To name them is to be personal, to admire them 
is but natural. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. n 

Pitcarn, the air brake inventor, is a fifty millionaire. 

Carnegie's auditor has an $18,000 salary. 

Dr. Hussy, of steel patents, makes a quarter million a 
year. 

But do not expect one to be everything. Not by any 
means. It is enough to be a man of good character — one 
who is proficient in some honest trade or calling, for pro- 
motion comes in the end to the deserving. He must be 
trusty, or he will never be trusted. He must be able to do 
something well, or no one can use him. He must attract at- 
tention by some act of ability. He must perform his duty 
well, or he will never lead an enterprise. It was Grant's 
victories that led Lincoln to trust him and promote him. 
It was Edison's skill that gave him control of telegraph 
capital to make up his inventions. Let us remember the 
Carlyle rule: 

"Success in life, in anything, depends upon the number 
of persons that one can make himself agreeable to." 

Finally, the American Boy's ambition is unbounded. 
For years he has been an inventor of new imple- 
ments. The house and the farm, the shop and the factory, 
bear marks of his genius and discovery. He would raise 
faster horses, breed finer cattle, make safer ships, build taller 
blocks, run grander cars, write better books, print cheaper, 
larger, nicer newspapers, heat homes with gas jets, make the 
dolls in doll-houses to sing the babes to sleep, lay out the 
earth into villages, sell all the corner lots for school houses, 
travel, marry, go to Congress, be a merchant prince, or 



12 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

make himself a millionaire; but more than all, he will mag- 
nify and love his country — as the greatest and freest 
nation on earth! 

The time was when he took sides in war; when he went 
out in the morning of his life — in the honeymoon of his 
marriage — the day after his wedding ; when he endured hard- 
ship and suffered hunger — when he reached his hands down 
into the horse troughs and took the coarse corn from the 
dumb brutes' rations, to parch it and eat it and keep from 
starving to death! But he will do so no longer! In the 
morning of his life, his country was poor, like the early days 
of our fathers, and now that it is richer, and prouder, he 
repeats the good words of his old commander, the silent 
soldier, General Grant, "Let us have peace ; Let us prosper." 
Truly let us have peace, and, by making up the earth into 
money, let us create prosperity. Let us distribute not grudg- 
ingly but liberally among those who created it! 



LINCOLN AS A GENIUS. 



For over thirty years in his lifetime, Wendell Phillips, the 
brilliant and distinguished Boston orator, passed over this 
country and spoke in different cities week after week, month 
after month, and year after year, on the "Lost Arts." Lean- 
ing with one arm upon the pulpit, or standing at ease, with 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 13 

scarcely a gesture above the forearm, he described by the 
hour and a half the pyramids of Egypt, the Damascus blade, 
the raising of mighty rocks high in air, and we listened to 
it, and year after year, he told the same story, with the same 
interest, and I have thought of all he said of the lost arts, 
but it was nothing in comparison with the great character 
that we are to consider to-night. 

George Eliot tells us that there are words in describing 
things that pass by us like the winds, and we forget all 
about them, and there are other words that come to us as 
with friendly hands, and look upon us with kind eyes and 
breathe upon us with sweet breath, and come into our being, 
move us and thrill us like music, and then we are influenced 
by them, and then they mold our lives, and then they last 
and influence us in our whole career. 

We are to consider to-night, in plain simple words, the 
greatest character that this country has produced in this cen- 
tury — without any exception whatever — a character not so 
learned in books as many others; not so learned as Everett 
or Seward or Chase, in books; but considered in another 
light, in the knowledge of men and events, a man wiser 
than either of these; for one single year of his administra- 
tion was more than eight years of any college course that 
any man ever had in the world. Not so polished an ora- 
tor, in the ordinary acceptation of the term as was Beecher, 
Webster, Clay or Phillips; not as we ordinarily speak of ora- 
tors, but measured by a higher test than these, by the 
ancient test — the test that Cicero and Demosthenes gave — 



U SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

the power to mold and influence men; to make them act as 
he willed. Measured by this test he was a greater orator 
than either of these. Not so polished a man in deportment 
and manners as was Franklin Pierce, Charles Sumner, 
Conkling or Arthur, but measured by a broader test than 
of ordinary deportment — a gentleman. A man whom all 
could approach and feel at home with. A man whose heart 
beat alike for all mankind. A man who carried his man- 
hood forward in all positions, under all circumstances, and 
who was ever true, faithful, and upright as a gentleman. 
By this test no one of them excelled plain Abraham 
Lincoln. 

You that attended the World's Fair at Chicago will re- 
member a peculiar figure in the center of the fine art gal- 
lery, surrounded by competing statuary of the world. You 
remember a large figure of heroic size, with heavy frame 
and bent head, sitting in an arm chair, and in the right 
hand a pen and in the left hand an unrolled scroll. On the 
scroll one word, "Emancipation." And in the deep-set 
eyes bent forward, if marble eyes have expression, there was 
a far-away look, as if to pierce centuries and tell and see 
what this one word he had written would impart and bring 
to mankind. That is the figure that we are to throw light 
on to-night. It is impossible to dwell upon the whole 
character in one evening, but we speak of one element of 
his character — Lincoln as a Genius. 

The ancient Greeks and Romans both believed in the 
Genii — born with man — evil or good — that followed him 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 15 

from cradle to coffin — directing his career through all his life. 
We call genius a native gift. Defoe thinks genius is "pa- 
tience." Edison says it's another name for work. He 
thinks we only know a millionth part of anything yet. But 
most of us, with Webster, believe it to be the highest ele- 
ment of intellect applied to human affairs — a spark of the 
divinity. Genius is something that leads one to do extra- 
ordinary things, that reaches more than ordinary emergen- 
cies; that always goes a little beyond expectation instead of 
falling a little below it. 

The German legend describes man and his creation most 
beautifully. It seems by the legend that at the 

creation of man the Almighty called his attributes 
before him, Truth, Justice and Mercy; and to Truth 
He said, shall We make man? and Truth answered 
Him, make Him not, he will deny Thv statutes; 
and to Justice He said, shall We make man? and 
Justice said, Oh, create him not, Father, he will destroy 
Thy statutes, bring want and misery to light, and bathe his 
hand in human blood, create him not; and to Mercy He 
said, shall We make man? and gently kneeling at the 
throne, Mercy answered, O, create him, Father, and I will 
follow him; wheresoever he goes I will go; by his errors 
he shall learn wisdom, and at last I will bring him back to 
Thee; and man was made at the behest of Mercy. 

And do you remember in all history any one character 
that so fitly and aptly answers all these definitions, as did 
plain Abraham Lincoln; created with the genii, or genius 



16 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

■of good, that filled him ail the days of his life, within 
him was the element of patience and duty, as he struggled 
with adversity and by his side the Angel of Mercy, said, be 
merciful, be merciful, and all things he did were merciful. 

What was it that made this man, born in the year 1809, 
on the 1 2th of February, in Kentucky, of the poor white 
people, in great poverty, without school houses and ad- 
vantages-; what was it that so lifted him up and raised him 
above his fellow men; what made him great? First, he 
was born poor and from necessity he struggled, and next 
he was reared and trained by his own mother; his hope, 
his cheer, his ambition, his instruction came directly to the 
boy from the lips of a true mother and were not implanted 
in him through the hand of a hired nurse. In his struggle, 
in his one year's schooling, he remembered what his mother 
had said: "Think for yourself. Be independent in every- 
thing. Be true to yourself." And as he grew up he remem- 
bered it and often told of it. His mother was buried when 
he was 9 years of age; and with his books he would go 
out and sit by her grave and read and study and in his heart 
he determined to obey the mandates and the precepts of his 
mother; for somewhere he felt when a small boy, within 
him a secret ambition; he knew not what; we will call it the 
little angel, the genii or genius of good. He had only four 
books; his year's schooling was a very meager training. 
Whenever he found a good quotation in a book he would 
write it on a board; if he had no pencil, with coal, with 
chalk, with anything; pencils were not common then. He 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 17 

would take a piece of coal and write it down and learn it; 
and a peculiarity of Lincoln's education was, that he learned 
well what he knew; what he knew he remembered; what he 
remembered he put in practice. Everything he knew was 
so clear, that he could make it clear to others. He read 
Blackstone, Shakespeare, the Bible, Bunyan, Burns and had 
Aesop's Fables committed to memory — and solved alone 
the problems of Euclid. He had enough in his books 
learned thoroughly to give him a splendid vocabulary. 
There are no great thoughts that are not found in these 
books. Lincoln was of magnificent form physically and had 
a mind of his own; it was not so much what others thought, 
but how he made it over as his own; he had molded it, he 
had controlled it, he had made it, so that it was at his com- 
mand. 

True greatness is measured by what men do to make 
other men better. Born in sight of slavery and the auction 
block, where the mother was separated from the child and 
the husband from the wife, he acquired a hatred of oppres- 
sion that became a passion in his nature till by his procla- 
mation he made this nation free. No orator, poet or states- 
man has ever been great who has not known suffering. It 
is the cross that wins the crown. It was his blindness that 
made Milton immortal. It was his suffering that made St.. 
Paul eloquent. It was his own abject poverty that made J~ 
Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home" so pathetic. Great 
sentiments brought out by sorrow, by suffering and strong- 
thought, Lincoln had them all. 



18 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

At Gettysburg he felt his passion from his very soul. 

Elevated by the people, he was the same plain man of 
master mind as before his elevation. He was merciful. 
The Vermont woman who waited through the long hours 
of night to gain a pardon for her son, who was to be shot 
at sunrise, came out with the reprieve exclaiming, "They lied 
about him! They said he was homely; but to me he is the 
handsomest man I ever saw!" 

He had a pointed humor with the rest. Challenged to 
fight a duel, he promptly accepted, saying as the challenged 
one could choose his weapons, he would select broadswords; 
and so he had one made at a blacksmith's shop, nine feet 
long — which ended the duel. 

He lived to be 2.7 years of age without any marked suc- 
cess at all; he was a lawyer at 27. He cut a very small 
figure when he kept a store. He, and his partner, for he 
bought into a store, had an interest in a business for a little 
while, and afterwards in life it was thrown up to him in a 
peculiar way, but Lincoln, equal to every occasion, made 
answer. * * * In their debate Mr. Douglas said, "I re- 
member my young friend, when over in Sangamon County, 
how he kept a grocery store and sold nails and calico, 
brooms, tobacco and whiskey, and a very good quality whis- 
key, too. I have been there on one side of the bar and he 
and his partner on the other, and know." If anybody did, 
Douglas ought to know. When it came Mr. Lincoln's turn 
he remembered it. He said, I am glad he mentioned it, I re- 
jnember it was not a very successful venture, that store. It 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 19 

winked out. I remember we had a regular variety store, 
axe handles, broom handles, cigars and tobacco, calico, 
sheeting, almost everything — and whiskey, too. I remem- 
ber, for my good friend came often, he came often and 
stayed long, I remember that he did get what he called 
for and, Lincoln grew very solemn, I am bound to say that 
I have left my side of that counter, and I have left it forever, 
but I notice that my friend Douglas clings to his side with 
the same tenacity that he ever did. (Applause.) 

When he first started in life they rather made fun of him 
as being homely. But he said, I reckon the Almighty must 
have liked homely people better than others, he made so 
many. They laughed at his extreme height ; he was 6 feet 4 
inches high in his stockings. He said, I always thought a 
man's legs ought to be long enough to reach from his body 
down to the ground. He was equal to any emergency. In 
a law suit, after he began practice, he tried a case known as 
the Grayson case. Old Mrs. Grayson employed Lincoln to 
defend her son for murder. He was known then as Abram 
Lincoln. Grayson was accused of killing Lockwood on a 
camp meeting ground; the feeling ran so high that they had 
to change the venue. The trial began, and Lincoln kept very 
silent during the examination; didn't cross-examine anyone 
until the last witness, and Mrs. Grayson got very uneasy, she 
commenced to scowl a little, muttered, I wonder why Abram 
don't do something, and that nettled him, because he 
wanted his own way in the trial, and in a little while he 
did do something. Remember, we are in the court room; 



20 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

there is a murder scene; a crowded hall; ladders are at the 
windows; every inch of standing room is taken; intense ex- 
citement. The populace have turned out; they are all there 
watching the battle of the attorneys. The last witness has 
been called to testify and he has given a very straightforward 
story. 

He saw the shot, saw it fired, saw young Grayson stand 
over his victim, saw him start to run away; intense excite- 
ment settled in the court room, and the people rested. 

Then plain Abraham Lincoln stood up, and everybody 
held his breath. He said, picking up the pistol, I under- 
stand you to say that you saw this weapon, that you saw 
the hang of it, and you recognize this as it? Yes, sir. You 
saw the man start to run away after the shot? Yes, sir. 
Saw him lean over the victim? Yes, sir. This was the 
one? Yes, sir. How far were you away? Only a few 
rods. How far was that in the timber? About twenty 
rods. What time of the year was it? The ioth of August. 
What time of the night was it? About 10 o'clock. Wasn't 
it nearer 9 o'clock? It was 10 o'clock. How far from the 
camp ground proper was it? Oh, I guess about twenty rods. 
Was it in the timber or open field? In the timber. Leaves 
on the timber then in August? Lots of them. Leaves 
on the timber; thickly timbered, was it? Yes, sir. You 
are sure you saw the hang of the pistol that you saw the 
shot fired with — that you saw the whole transaction? I told 
you so before. Yes, I know you told me so before, but I 
wanted you to tell me so again. What did you do with the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 21 

light you held there? I didn't have any light. Where were 
the lights? The lights were up by the meeting house. By 
what light did you see this shooting, then, sir? By moon- 
light. By moonlight? By moonlight. 

Then the tall man went down into his side pocket and 
took out a blue covered almanac, and turning to the Court, 
said, Your honor, I call your attention to this page and this 
date, to have it marked, and I ask your honor to note that 
at that hour, 10 o'clock on the 10th of August, there was no 
moon. The moon rose at 1 o'clock the next morning; there 
was no moon, your honor! The Court saw it; the people 
saw it, and Lincoln, taking advantage, turned as if half a 
foot taller, and said, I demand the arrest of this man here 
and now! Perjury so vile should not go unpunished. He 
should be brought to the bar of this court; and he was 
brought to the bar, and it was found that he, in a quarrel 
with Lockwood, shot him, -and that he was the murderer and 
not young Grayson. 

You can see the genius in it. You can see the man rising 
to action, the forecast, the far-away look. 

Judge Campbell said in reply to my question before I 
went to Crete one year, when asked what is the greatest 
quality of a lawyer, that forecast, foresight, always ready to 
see through to the end of litigation and comprehend it; that 
is the greatest in a lawyer, the greatest in a statesman. 

Oh, if we could see through to the end and know where 
victory could be. Is it not the greatest quality of a lawyer 
or a statesman? Lincoln had that forecast. When he was a 



22 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

debater, prominent in politics, he was put forward to contest 
the senatorial nomination with Mr. Douglas, and early in his 
career lie displayed the same sagacity and genius as a de- 
bater he had displayed as a lawyer. Douglas wanted to be 
President. He was of elegant appearance and had a good 
education. Lincoln was a tall homely man, with a great 
amount of sturdy manhood. He had a direct way of put- 
ting everything. First the crowd was inclined to follow 
Douglas. Lincoln saw it. So he laid a trap for Doug- 
las. On the second evening of the debate, the second 
or third evening, he asked him four different questions, and 
if they were answered one way, they would please the State 
of Illinois, because they related to the extension of slavery 
in the territories and the repeal of the Dred Scott decision, 
or the reversal of it, and the general attitude of the country 
on the question of slavery. Douglas was very ambitious to 
be a senator. Young men, don't make that mistake and 
forget the long look and far distant future. Douglas so 
framed his four answers to the four questions that they suit- 
ed the people of Illinois. Why he was opposed to the ex- 
tension of slavery, he would have it curtailed just about as 
the people of Illinois wanted it. But if a man chanced to go 
into Kansas he had the same right to take his slave as any 
property. He would not extend it without limit. He an- 
swered the question as Mr. Lincoln wanted; made himself 
a very good man in the State of Illinois, but a very bad man 
to suit the Southern people. Lincoln said, that sends him to 
the Senate. That defeats him for the presidency. Sure 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 23 

enough, the next time, this was in -58, when he came up for 
nomination in '60, Douglas was rotten-egged out of the con- 
vention. Do you see the genius of Lincoln and the long 
look ahead? Lincoln was triumphantly nominated and as 
triumphantly elected for the presidency of the United States, 
and by his election he changed the whole attitude of the 
country. Before his election men had been in the habit of 
dating back to ancestry. "My grandfather came over in the 
May Flower, or my great uncle was a blue blood, or my 
relatives were very high up in the world, and they were none 
of the low common people;" oh, no. But after Lincoln's 
election things changed all over this country, people com- 
menced to build rail fences and talk about labor, and after 
his election labor was lifted up to the altitude of the tall 
President, and it never went down after that; it was upon a 
higher plane than ever before, and manhood was higher 
than ever before, it took a higher standing, upon a higher 
plane; and to-day, no man, for any office, dare say that he 
has not done honest hard labor with his own hands, but if 
he has worked, he dare say it, and to-day the question is not 
what a man's grandfather was or his great uncle happened 
to be, but what he is, and not what he may be and will be — 
not what somebody else had been. 

I almost skipped over something in Lincoln's character 
that must not be left out. In his early life he shaped his ca- 
reer to a great extent. In his early life he was disappointed. 
He loved a young woman (it is not profane to speak of 
it), and the affection was returned — but before the time 



24 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

she was buried ; and he started out in life in a way that would 
have broken down a weaker nature, for it took a strong 
hold on him. Some men would have turned to drink, others 
to roving, others to reckless life, but to him it took hold 
of his great heart and being and nature, and it plowed up 
his soul, and increased his affection, and his spirit grew 
larger and grander, and Lincoln was the greatest hearted 
man that this country ever knew. 

Lincoln was honest. He had a genius for honesty. He 
could not try a case for a client who had the wrong side. 
Unlike Webster, who bowed to public opinion and party 
spirit, he made public opinion and scorned party senti- 
ment. Webster wanted to be President. Lincoln wanted 
to be right. 

And if we could call back the statesmen of the past who 
have made our country free and famous, we would pass by 
our idols like Sumner and Seward, Webster and Clay, Mor- 
ton and Chandler, Garfield and Blaine, Grant and Sherman, 
and bow before the grandest of them all, Lincoln the genius ! 
He was nature's gentleman. 

As one has said: 

When nature, with a matchless hand, 

Sends forth her noblv born. 
She laughs the paltry attributes 

Of wealth and rank to scorn. 
She molds with care, and spirit rare, 

Half human, half divine, 
And cries exulting, "Who can make 

A gentleman like mine?'' 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 25 

She may not spend her finer skill 

Upon the outer part, 
But showers beauty, grace and light 

Upon the brain and heart. 
No haughty gesture marks his gait, 

No pompous tone his word; 
No studied attitude is seen, 

No palling nonsense heard. 

Justice and mercy for his code, 

He puts his trust in heaven; 
His prayer is : "If the heart be right, 

May all else be forgiven." 
So few of such men gem the earth, 

Yet such rare gems there are. 
Each shining in his hallowed sphere 

As virtue's polar star. 

There are some spirits nobly just, 

Unwarped by pelf or pride, 
Great in the calm but greater still 

When dashed against the tide. 
They hold the rank no king can give, 

No station can disgrace; 
When nature forms her gentleman, 

All others must give place. 

These are the words to show that he was a gentleman; 
approachable, upright, honest, conscientious — the same man 
in Washington that he had been in Springfield; the same 
man in any station, always approachable, always a gentle- 
man. 

He was the head of his administration; he selected the 
wise men, Stanton, the proud man of Ohio; Seward, the 



26 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

pride of New York State; Wells and others. He selected 
these men, but he governed them in great emergencies; the 
state papers bear the marks of his ingenuity, of his diplom- 
acy, of his forecast, for he could look after other men; he 
went through the first administration, the greatest and the 
largest that this country ever knew. He struggled against 
fault-finding and criticism, and bore malice toward none, 
and charity to all, and went forward doing his plain duty; 
apprehending much, planning much, executing, thinking 
much, and when the time came he always acted in the most 
masterly manner. 

When it became known in the dark days just before Jan- 
uary, '63, that it was necessary to break the bonds and let 
the bondmen free, his deliberate action, his long look ahead 
was equal to the emergency, and with that unrolled scroll 
and uplifted pen, that far away look, that signature — with 
one word millions became free, now six, soon twelve, then 
twenty millions — wonderful deed! Measured by the one 
test, this one test alone, what he did, not for himself, but to 
make others happy, measured by the one test of signing 
that proclamation alone, all else left out, that one act of 
statesmanship, the fame of Lincoln will reach to the height 
of the Washington monument, the highest monument ever 
built by man. 

Caesar and Alexander and Napoleon were ambitious ; they 
all had a personal ambition ; they were cruel at times ; they 
always had a personal object, but will you tell me one act 
of cruelty in the life of Lincoln; will you name or place 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 27 

your finger upon any act that seemed like a personal glory 
or personal ambition? Then the test applied to him, that he 
was an unselfish man. Aristotle, years ago, said of a great- 
souled man, he will not be given to small ambition, he will 
bear no malice ; he will be charitable and considerate to his 
equals and to his inferiors, even to his slaves. But above all 
a great-souled man will be unselfish. Then by the meas- 
ure of the wisest philosopher, by the definition of the dic- 
tionaries and writers, Lincoln not only became and was a 
genius, equal to all emergencies, but governed the definitions 
of true and noble greatness. While you would think that 
a man like that ought to be allowed to live a thousand years, 
that he might do good to other generations, he died in his 
prime. Let me vary from the subject for one brief mo- 
ment. One of the greatest men this country ever knew was 
Webster. Webster, you remember, was one not so tall, but 
a large man; a grand expounder of the law and Constitu- 
tion and a great Senator, and to describe him in a word 
they said of him, the houses on Beacon street looked 
smaller when Webster passed along! A magnificent picture 
of a great character; the houses looked smaller when he 
passed; yet he failed in statesmanship. The difference be- 
tween Lincoln and Webster was this: Webster wanted to 
be President, Lincoln wanted to be right! 

But in the very height of his prime, almost thirty years 
ago to-night — after they had put down the rebellion, and 
the sword of Lee had been passed over to the hands of 
Grant — rejoicing went up and down Pennsylvania avenue;. 



^8 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Lincoln rejoiced with the rest, and went one night to the 
theatre — a theatre no larger than this. Before the second 
act, as he and his family were enjoying the play, a slim, 
black-haired young man crept around through the flies, 
through the seats, crept up near the great Lincoln, crept 
up close behind and shot him in the head, and instantly 
leaped from the box and hurried off, but was later shot and 
killed in a barn. The next day the great Lincoln was 
dead. I was a school boy here then. When the news- 
boys came out they cried: "Lincoln is killed. Lincoln is 
killed." "President Lincoln is shot." I bought a Tribune, 
with black lines all around the sides. Inside of an hour 
the streets were crowded, more than when at a 
.fire. Where the City Hall is, great masses of 
people gathered as if a great fire had been; and 
all afternoon they kept gathering, and you could see 
men with tears in their eyes; in the evening they held a 
public meeting, and Stewart spoke. Men said, blood for 
blood; blood, blood for blood! This was the feeling every- 
where; blood for blood; all over the city and all over the 
nation ! Men were enraged, they were sore at heart. They 
held public meetings. If a man said aught against Lincoln 
they took rails and broke in his buildings; men were excited; 
they drove one man into the river. 

Then the great procession bearing the body started in 
Washington, to Philadelphia and New York, to Rochester 
and to Buffalo and Cleveland and Indianapolis and Chicago 
and rested at Springfield; and it seemed wherever that 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 29. 

procession went with that body, farmers left their teams, 
storekeepers went out, children hung on the fences, until it 
seemed one continual funeral procession from Washington 
to Springfield. And they buried the body of the great man. 
They did not bury his good name; they did not bury his 
deeds; they didn't bury the freedom that he had created. 
They didn't bury the hope that he had planted in the breasts 
of the laboring men in this country. They buried the body 
only. 

The news went out over the country, and the people 
mourned as though a king were dead. The tele- 
graph did not go as fast those days as now; and one man 
who carried the news over to Germany tells that they had on 
the first of May in Frankfort a great feast, and he happened 
to be there, and the details of the killing of Lincoln had not 
reached there yet; he attended the great hall; those magnifi- 
cent halls and theatres are so many and many times larger 
than in this country. And there the men were drink- 
ing and the women were marching; they had glasses in their 
hands, and flowers, and it was a gala day; it was the first of 
May. This man had reached home in this season. Mount- 
ing the stage, he said, "Hear you, hear you, that great man 
over the water is shot!" People halted; he repeated, "Lincoln, 
the great President over the water is killed!" The glasses 
dropped to the table; the flowers fell from the children's 
hands; the faces looked downward, the music stopped; the 
people turned and went out doors in silence, in deep, sub- 
dued silence ; thev marched as if from a funeral scene. That 



30 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

was the impression made all over this country and all over 
the civilized world. And to-day, the picture, the likeness of 
this man, is hanging upon the walls in more cottages than 
any other face except the Savior's. The name that we see 
in books attached to any story, that we always read about. 
The one man that this whole community can stand together 
and admire. The great comrade, the greatest living Ameri- 
can in the last century, born in this country. That man has 
planted his career in the hearts of the people ; his monument 
is not as tall as the one in Washington, but it is as broad. 
There are more hearts to-day touched by the j understanding 
of the death of Lincoln, and there are more cheered by the 
life of Lincoln, and more have been made happy by his acts 
and conduct, and more have been taught to believe him and 
his sentiments of real honesty by reason of his character, 
than any one man's that ever lived on this continent. 

MAKE HIM OUR KING. 

I read long ago in the German, of a kind young king, 
among the Huns, who was so loved by his people that they 
gave him a golden throne and a silver crown. That soon 
after he died in his prime, and the people said: "We will 
have no king. None other can fill his place." 

Two years they waited and finally they longed for a king. 
At last they voted to select a king, provided one could be 
found whom the elements obeyed and the animals would 
love. To find such a king search was made in all the cities 
and hamlets round about, but without avail. Then men in 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 31 

pairs were sent through the fields and woods, but returned 
without a king. Then at last, they searched in the moun- 
tains, till one day two searchers for the king were overtaken 
by a dreadful storm of wind and hail and snow, that drove 
them for shelter into a cave way up on the mountain side. 

In the cave they found a little man dressed in furs. He 
gave them generous welcome, saying: "Come in and wait 
until the storm goes by!" He gave them bread to eat, and 
a bed of furs to sleep upon and said, "Rest until the storm 
goes by." 

They fell asleep, but about two o'clock in the night they 
were awakened by a terrible roar and noise outside. They 
rose on their elbows and said: 

"We shall be killed! We shall be killed! This is a rob- 
ber's cave!" Then the little man in furs came out, saying, 
"What is this I hear? What is this complaint?" 

"Hear you the noise outside?" said the searchers for a 
king, still trembling in fear. 

Going to the cave door and sliding it, the little man in 
furs exclaimed: 

"O, I see! Bears, wolves, tigers, lions, wild animals out 
in the storm! Come in! Come in, out of the storm! 
Come in, you lions! Come in and wait till the storm goes 
by!" 

Instantly the bears, lions, tigers and wolves hurried in. 
The lions licked the little man's hands. He stroked the 
tigers on the back. The wolves huddled around like little 
lambs. 



32 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"Take your places in the corner there," said the man in 
furs, which they did and seemed delighted to be in out of 
the storm, and all slept again until morning. 

In the morning the animals were let out. A hole was 
made in the ceiling and the bright rays of the sun shone in. 
It was focused in a glass and a fire lighted from a piece of 
punk. 

A fire was built, a meal of meat cooked; the men were 
treated to a substantial meal and then shown outside, where 
the water in summer was caught in a fountain, where sheep 
and cattle and animals and men could drink. 

The searchers for a king were about to go. They remem- 
bered to pay their bill. 

"What shall we pay you for your kindness and entertain- 
ment like this?" asked the men. 

The little man straightened up and said with great force, 
very slowly: "Pay — me — for — kindness? O, sirs, there is 
no payment for kindness save in kindness to somebody else f 
Go your way, and when you find people in distress, so deal 
with them as has been done to you in this storm, with this 
injunction, that you bid them all continue the kindness to 
the end of time." 

The little man bowed and returned to his cave. The 
searchers for a king returned to their city and knew not what 
they had seen; but the people, always wiser than one or two, 
threw up their hands, exclaiming: 

"Make him our king. Make him our king! Kindness 
has made him worthy to be king." 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 33 

So they sent the men once more up the steep moun- 
tain side and brought back the little man in furs, placed him 
upon the golden throne, put upon his head a silver crown, 
in honor of his kindness. 



A LINCOLN ELECTION. 



I remember one. In November, 1864, the union prison- 
ers in Andersonville held an election in all due form of law. 
News had reached them from beyond the lines that the 
Republican party had renominated Abraham Lincoln upon 
a platform which declared for the prosecution of the war to 
the bitter end. They had heard that the Democrats had 
nominated George B. McClellan on a platform which de- 
clared the war a failure, and called for the cessation of hos- 
tilities. They knew that McClellan's election would result 
in a speedy exchange of prisoners, and a return home. 
How much that meant to a man penned up there, God only 
knows. To walk once more the shady lane; to see the ex- 
pectant faces of love in the open door, to hold against his 
breast the one woman whose momentary embrace seemed 
more to him than hope of heaven does to you and I ; to raise 
in yearning arms the sturdy boy who was a baby when his. 
father marched away. It meant this, and it meant more. 



34 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

It meant life, and hope, and home, and love, and peace for 
him; but for the flag, dishonor, and for the Union dissolu- 
tion. 

The re-election of Lincoln meant the indefinite continu- 
ance of the war, prolonged captivity, suffering and death, 
amid the horrors of Andersonville. They knew the issue 
and they solemnly prepared to meet it on that election morn,- 
ing. A mock election, say you? Yes, a mock election. Its re- 
sult would never be returned to swell the grand total of loyal 
votes in liberty's land, but in the golden book of life, that 
mock election is recorded in letters of eternal splendor. 
They took for their ballot-box an old tin coffee pot; their 
ballots were army beans. A black bean was for Lincoln, 
the Republican party, the flag and the Union, but the man 
who cast it could never expect to see home, wife or babies 
any more. A white bean was for McClellan, the Demo- 
cratic party, the Union sacrificed, its flag in the dust; but it 
also was a promise to those despairing men of all most dear 
to human hearts. Some walked to the polls, some crawled 
there, and some were borne in the tender arms of loving 
comrades, and with the last expiring breath of life dropped 
in the bean that registered a freeman's will. And when the 
sun had set and the glory of evening filled the sky, eager 
hands tore off the lid and streaming eyes looking therein 
saw that the inside of the old coffee pot was as black as the 
face of the blackest contraband with votes for Abraham Lin- 
coln and the Republican party. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 35 



CITIZENSHIP. 



(From a Speech of Senator Fry.) 

Citizenship? What is citizenship? It has a broader 
signification than you and I are apt to give it. Citizenship 
does not mean alone that the man who possesses it shall 
be obedient to the law, shall be kindly to his neighbor, shall 
regard the rights of others, shall perform his duties as juror, 
shall, if the hour of peril comes, yield his time, his property 
and his life to his country. It means more than that. It 
means that his country shall guarantee to him and protect 
him in every right which the Constitution gives him. What 
right has the Republic to demand his life, his property, in 
the hour of peril, if, when his hour of peril comes, it fails 
him? Why, a man died in England a few days ago, as I 
see by the papers — Lord Napier, of Magdala, and his death 
reminded me of an incident which illustrates this, an incident 
which gave that great lord his name. A few years ago 
King Theodore of Abyssinia seized Capt. Campbell, a Brit- 
ish citizen, and incarcerated him in a dungeon on the top of 
a mountain 9,000 feet high. England demanded his release 
and King Theodore refused. England fitted out and sent on 
5,000 English soldiers, 10,000 Sepoys; debarked them on the 
coast, marched them 900 miles through swamp and morass 
under a burning sun. Then they marched up the mountain 
hight, they scaled the walls, they broke down the iron gates, 
they marched down into the dungeon, they took this one 



2,6 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

British citizen like a brand from the burning and carried 
him down the mountain side, across the morass, put him on 
board the white-winged ship and bore him away to England 
in safety. 

That cost Great Britain millions of dollars and it made 
Gen. Napier Lord Napier of Magdala. 

Now, was not that a magnificent thing for a great country 
to do? Only think of it! A country that has an eye sharp 
enough to see way across the ocean, way across the morass, 
way up into the mountain top, way down into the dungeon, 
one citizen, one of her 30,000,000, and then has an arm 
strong enough to reach way across the ocean, way across 
the morass, way up to the mountain hight and down into 
the dungeon and take that one and bear him away home in 
safety. In the name of the dear God, who would not live 
and die, too, for the country that can do that? (Applause.) 

That magnificent man (pointing to the picture of Wash- 
ington), that glorious patriot, that father of his country, Lin- 
coln and Garfield to-day, standing right by his side, that 
glorious triune — what do you suppose they would say to the 
Republican party in power? 

I tell you, my friends, this country of ours is worth our 
thought, it is worth our care, it is worth our labor, it is 
worth our lives. (Applause.) What a magnificent country 
it is; what a Republic for the people; where the people are 
kings. Men of great wealth, great power, great influence, 
can live without any difficulty in a monarchy; but how can 
you and I, how can the average man, live under despotic 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 37 

power? Oh, this blessed Republic of ours stretches its 
hands down to the men and lifts them up, while despotism 
puts its heavy hand on their heads and presses them down. 
This blessed Republic of ours speaks to every boy in the 
land, black or white, rich or poor, and asks him to come up 
higher and higher. 



THE SOLDIER'S REWARD. 



(Address to Old Soldiers.) 

The Germans have a beautiful legend of Valhalla, a place 
erected in honor of brave men who fell in the battle. Con- 
nected with Valhalla, or Hall of the Valiant, is the belief 
that just before every battle two angels pass over the camp 
in the darkness, while the soldiers are asleep, and select out 
the valiant who are to fall in the contest, and mark them with 
honor. By the story in the legend, all who may thus fall 
in battle are doubly immortal. They receive their reward in 
a happy home beyond the sun and the lasting honor in the 
hearts of their people who erected to their memory the build- 
ing, "Valhalla.'' 

From the early ages till the present the brave have ever 
been honored with monuments. The Egyptians spent mil- 
lions to build pyramids by the labor of slaves in honor of 



38 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

kings, and filled the vacant chambers with portraits of bat- 
tles so that the deeds of bravery might be lasting and per- 
petual. The Spartans trained their boys for battle from five 
years upwards. Each was taught to mount fleet horses 
and use the shield and spear with dexterous hands. Even in 
childhood the Romans gave their chief honors to manly 
contests and physical bravery. 

It is not from tradition or from story that we found our 
inspiration for bravery. It is a new and separate motive, 
different from that ever known in history. In the Avars of 
Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon, or even of William the 
Conqueror, there is a separate and different motive. Caesar 
sought honor in glory, Alexander in dominion, and Xapo- 
leon in both. All these sought personal honors. Their fol- 
lowers were not inspired by devotion to country, but by a 
desire to obey their leaders and seek under them to attain 
some special glory and renown. It was not liberty but con- 
quest that William the Conqueror looked for in England. 
Even in the seven years war of the revolution there was an 
element of self-defense — a defense of home — a struggle with 
invaders and savages that gave a strong motive to battle. 
But the mainspring of action that inspired men in the late 
great battle for the union was unlike all of them. 

History is full of wars and battles. The story of the world 
is written in blood; but history has never before shown such 
a vast body of intelligent men drawn from all trades and 
walks of life, following a single leader — the immortal Lin- 
coln — and risking so much with such a trifling reward and 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 39 

so meager a pittance of salary. It was not for money, surely, 
that men enlisted, for the $13 a month could easily be 
doubled at home. It was not for the glory of men, for 
Americans had no special idol. It was for a pride of national 
supremacy, to have a nation of states, a new principle of 
government — the experiment of men trying to govern them- 
selves that they enlisted to perpetuate. For this they braved 
the heat and dust of a southern climate, the swamps and 
miasma of foreign states, the loathsome prisons, and the 
dreadful privations of hunger, sickness and starvation; and 
those that lived the longest suffered most. 

To the heroes who fell asleep either at the sudden shock 
of the cannon or the quick blow of the bullet, and the pierc- 
ing shriek of the shell — those whom the death angel singled 
out in advance to die in honor, a rest came and relieved 
them from duty. They lived in honor and died like mar- 
tyrs. For them we bring flowers to-day and sing anthems. 
They are gone to their home over and beyond the sun and 
stars, and we are building "Flower Halls" to their memory. 

But there are others that found not the relief that death 
often brings to a noble sentinel, to those who have waited 
through the long watches of the night and no relief; those 
who had their forced marches, endured their prison fare, 
received their shock and their wounds, and outlived them; 
of those who mingled honor and cruelty — honor for their 
bravery, but cruel, as it follows them with a lasting pain 
and an everlasting reminder that once they were well, once 
they were young, once they were heroes, once they were 



40 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

petted and promised great gains and rewards, and now, 
when they are older, with the fruits of their labor all secure, 
a nation saved and made glorious, has either forgotten them 
or neglected their necessities. Let us hope and trust that 
the implied contract of suffering for something — a contract 
that the nation is bound by when it settles with its defenders, 
will demonstrate it. Away with this talk of u too much sur- 
plus" while the unpaid debt to crippled soldiers hangs as a 
menace over a liberty-loving people! 

Liberty means value to a government. It means credit. 
It is not the land of a nation that makes it wealthy, nor the 
climate, nor the riches, nor the pleasure of a few, for Mexico 
and South America have these, but the kind of laws, the 
safety of the people, the plan of government, the genius of 
our institutions preserved, the model of free government 
twice tried and once almost destroyed, and saved only by 
soldiers. These are founders of greatness, that to-day are 
often tramps, and many living in destitute circumstances 
who are too proud to beg and too brave to murmur. Dec- 
orate the graves of your fortunate comrades — brave men — 
cover them deep with flowers, for they deserve it. The time 
will come when your graves will be covered. The day will 
come when the enlightened conscience of the people will de- 
mand for you and your comrades a fairer compensation for 
the longer service and suffering you have endured. 

Go out into the world with a deeper and a firmer resolu- 
tion to-day as you leave the graves of your comrades, that 
while vou love vour countrv and its heroes, you will ask at 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 41 

its hands not only every honor for the dead but every obliga- 
tion for the living — not only the promise of reward but the 
performance of the promise; not only that the bondholders 
who lent their aid in money to save the nation's credit shall 
be settled with, but the creditors, in a larger sense, who 
opened the veins of their arms and lungs and limbs, and 
gave of their blood and their muscle, and their flesh, and 
their youth and their hope, and their manhood and their 
comfort in the morning of life — lent it, pledged it, furnished 
it, spared it, took it from their own, from their wives, their 
own children, and threw it in the balance that this govern- 
ment might not perish from the earth. To these — to the 
comrades who survive must yet come a day of reckoning 
and a soldier's reward, and that reward is a liberal, a boun- 
tiful and a universal pension. 

We are gathered near the graves of some of the greatest 
heroes the world has ever known. These men fell not in 
self-defense or even in defending homes. They lived beyond 
their age, and died that others might be free. They had 
known the blessing our country had been to all nations for 
a hundred years, and they gave their lives away that others 
might live on in greater liberty. These heroes with their 
comrades left everything, braved everything, lost everything 
but honor for our sake. Their country is their monument. 
In faint recollection of their worth and sufferings, a nation 
has voted them a day of flowers. Well may we vote them 
flowers, for all the flowers of all the states a hundred years 
to come is not enough to pay them. The time will come 



42 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

when they will have something better. There are things 
back of them that shaped their lives that cheered them when 
they fought and as they fell, and gave a warmer pressure to 
their kindly hands, that lit their eyes anew with hope, these 
were the souls within them. We reassure these in memory, 
and we have faith that by-and-by the fond faces will be seen 
again, and all the lost things will come back to us like songs 
we've heard and friends we've heard and friends we've parted 
with, and we will wait to meet them and greet them in the 
glad hereafter. 

We are met to observe a beautiful custom, and form a 
part in the millions that bring flowers to-day, to the graves 
of brave loved ones who died for us. A well spent life, the 
joys and affections of those we love, may persuade us of our 
merit, and make us long to live longer. In one view the 
grave is a dreamless sleep. In our hours of comfort the 
restful, perfect sleep of childhood may be counted as happy 
hours. At the grave, ambition, malice and revenge are 
laid away in dust. There friend is unlocked from the hand 
of friend and brother from the arm of brother. There the 
kind father takes the last look at the body of his cherished 
son. There the fond mother day by day and night by night 
moistens with her tears the earth that embraces her first 
born child. There the bereaved wife brings her garlands to 
spread over the one she will see no more till the resurrec- 
tion. 

To you, soldiers, who survived all the suffering, whose 
heroism withstood the strain of forced marches, who braved 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 43 

the cruelty of a four-years' war, in heat and dust of summer, 
and cold and hunger of winter; whose hearts failed not at 
Donelson and Vicksburg, whose courage matched Bragg at 
Chickamauga and stood with Thomas against a dreadful 
charge that swept away so many of your comrades, who en- 
dured the forces of Longstreet at Chattanooga on half ra- 
tions; who marched with Logan and Sherman to Atlanta, 
in the face of many doubters who said the "war was a fail- 
ure;" who drove back with Hancock, the invaders of Penn- 
sylvania at Gettysburgh, who followed Phil. Sheridan on his. 
grand ride to Winchester and Fredericksburg where your 
gallant Col. Gilloly fell; who trusted in Grant, that tireless, 
silent soldier, who followed him through the wilderness to 
Appomatox and saw him take the sword of Lee, who helped 
with 300,000 slain, and with as many thousand survivors, 
to save our nation and make it what it is to-day — the only 
free government of states on earth — to you, soldiers, 
and sharers of great glory, I say, make again a 
firmer resolution; make it by the graves of fallen 
comrades; carry it to your homes and your busi- 
ness, "write it on your hearts and engrave it on 
your bones," that this nation owes a debt to all soldiers, liv- 
ing or gone, and will never meet its honest obligations till 
it liberally provides an adequate pension for the survivors 
living and the heirs of the dead. This is the nation's duty, 
and the soldier's reward. 



44 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



COLUMBIAN DAY. 



It is the custom of nations to honor their heroes, and the 
flowers before us remind one of the German legend of "Val- 
halla, " a building erected by Ludwig, in honor of brave men 
who fell in battle. The legend tells us that before every 
battle, two angels pass over the camp in the night, while 
the soldiers are fast asleep, and touch those who are to fall 
on the morrow for their country, and mark them as immor- 
tal here and hereafter; and at the flower seasons like this, 
the young men and women repair to Valhalla with wreaths 
and songs and anthems to bravery; and this is one of the 
few customs of the old world that we may well copy. 

The nations of the earth have generally been held to- 
gether by the sword, the cannon or the bayonet; but our 
country has been formed and kept together by the superior 
intelligence of our people, by the "Little Red School House," 
and its graduates. 

Take away the history of the war from other nations 
and their story would be tame. Take out all the years of 
war in our country and we have still over ioo years of splen- 
did prosperity. Not by force of arms or guns or armies, 
for we have but a 20,000 army, but by a union of 65 millions 
of intelligent people, all under one flag, do we prosper! 

The Egyptians built pyramids with the labor of slaves, to 
the honor of kings, and piled up vast heaps of heavy stones 
and blocks of marble that vain man might be remembered. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 45 

or his body be preserved to show him by engraving on the 
massive walls in the act of killing a lion or tiger, and make 
the later ages call him brave. But there is nothing in that 
ancient race that teaches us one single principle of liberty 
for the masses. 

The Greeks excelled in art and oratory — in physical 
beauty and manly proportions. They gave us wise rules of 
happiness, but only a small portion of their people were 
examples of either comfort or happiness. In Attica, one 
of their large wealthy cities, out of 550,000 people, over 
four hundred thousand were slaves! So that Greece was 
not a model for our country. 

The Spartans trained their sons from 5 years upwards for 
war — made them ride swift horses — live on hard fare, sleep 
out of doors and endure privation, and they became great 
soldiers. Their mothers presented them as offerings to the 
state, but the Spartans made a poor government. 

The Romans boasted of a strong government under Cae- 
sar, of the value of Roman citizenship. But the Romans 
were both cruel and haughty to the poor; all they could cap- 
ture in war were made slaves to Roman masters. The kings 
amused the people by calling in 400 lions at a time to fight 
and kill each other in the arena. When this was too tame, 
they added 40 elephants to the fray; then took away a part 
in numbers and called the Christian slaves to fight for their 
liberty with wild lions; then they made man to man fights, 
till 10,000 gladiators a year would be a small average! And 
of their government, Cicero says : 



46 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"Gavius, a young Roman, was captured at Messea, and 
bound in irons in a forum, and was there beaten with rods, 
and as he was beaten, he turned his face to his native coun- 
try, Rome, and cried out: 

" 'I am a Roman citizen !' yet with red-hot irons did they 
scourge him, but he kept on repeating: 'I am a Roman citi- 
zen,' as if to ward off pain and danger with the words — 'I 
am a Roman citizen,' " and Cicero adds: "It was a crime to 
bind a Roman, to scourge him were cruelty, to put him to 
death, almost a parricide; but what shall we say when they 
crucified him!" 

Oh, Romans! it was not Gavins — it was not one man, 
but the common cause of freedom exposed to torture and 
nailed upon that cross. So with all her boasted freedom. 
Rome was a monster of cruelty to the common people. 
Her young men were debased and made brutal with wars. 
It was their people that killed the Saviour, for fear of trea- 
son to a Roman Caesar. 

So while the Germans are held together by a two million 
standing army, where the best blood of the nation is kept 
ready for battle, and the English, since the days of William 
the Conqueror, have exalted their Kings, Queens and 
nobles at the expense of the poorer classes, there is little 
in either country to pattern after by Americans. 

But in our country, 3,000 miles long and 2,400 miles 
wide — all free, all equal, all independent, all under one flag, 
we have an ideal government — the only successful people 
on earth. Original in everything, we pattern after no 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 47 

nation. We have learned to rule by intelligence — by edu- 
cated citizenship, and our progress depends upon education. 
To the young women of Michigan, the State has said, 
"Come up higher!" Come right up and vote (if you can 
read well enough). It matters little whether male citizens 
can read at all, but women must be able to read the consti- 
tution! In the old world we find few examples to encour- 
age women. Ruth was one. Mary at the tomb of the 
Saviour was another. And what a picture of faithfulness! 
After the mob had scoffed at Him, and killed Him, away 
into the darkness of the night, Mary was true to her 
Saviour! It is His teaching of peace that stands as the 
truest, as the highest example of life, and foundation of our 
government. 

The heroes of life are often women. They struggle all 
alone, without fame, without mention, without recorded 
honor. 

The lesson to the people is one of charity and unselfish- 
ness. Let me write it on your hearts to honor industry, 
and educate children. As we owe our freedom and stand- 
ing to intelligence, let us sort our immigration and exclude 
paupers. 

They fell as in the German legend, touched first by the 
angels as immortal! They fell for liberty; they fell for the 
flag that makes us free, and they shall never sleep unknown. 
Hundreds more as brave, perhaps the wives of those that 
fell, have suffered on for years, loyal to the flag, and yet 
unknown. Let it not be said thev fell in vain. Give us 



48 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

more honor and honesty in dealing with the brave. The 
unrecorded should be found. Let us remember the hardy 
pioneers who paved the road to commerce, freedom and 
free schools. Let us remember the masses — the toilers who 
made this country the grandest on earth. And to all the 
heroes, now unknown, let us say: 

"Columbia ere shall know them, 

And from her glittering towers, 
Kisses of love shall throw them 

And wreaths of sweetest flowers; 
Ever in realms of glory, 

Will stand their starry claims, 
Angels have heard their story, 

And God knows all their names.-' 



THE FLAG. 



Soldiers and Citizens: 

Travelers tell us that after having passed over the ocean 
in a storm, the recollection of that storm is a picture in their 
memory that they would never wish to efface. They re- 
member the old ship (if they have come out alive and well), 
they remember it with pleasant recollections, and say, I am 
glad to have passed through that storm. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 49 

Soldiers tell us, even those who have left an arm on battle 
fields, they are glad they enlisted, and glad they passed 
beyond the storm. 

In times like these, when the Nation somehow trembles 
just a little in the Western States, in the Middle States, in 
the factory districts of the East; in times like these, when 
the earth jars just a little, when England says America is 
passing through a revolution that she does not realize; in 
times like these it is well to remember other storms we have 
passed through and passed them safely through. 

The first great battle of the center of the Union's victory 
commenced in 1863. Indeed, the storms of 1863 were the 
battle storms of the Republic; 1863 was the revolution from 

1855- 

In 1855 they were passing laws in Kansas making it a 
crime, punishable with two years' imprisonment, to publish 
a paper, a tract or a book, that said aught against slavery. 
They were passing laws there that made it punishable with 
death to interfere with what they called the sacred rights of 
slavery. 

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln — God bless his soul (continued 
applause) — said, "We will have no more tampering with 
slavery; we will make the Nation all and altogether free!" 
(Applause.) 

And then they started in with the old flag at Gettysburg, 
and celebrated the Fourth of July. You were there, some 
of you. You remember how they fought on old Round 
Top, Hood against Sickles, and Lee against [Meade, and 



50 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Hancock fighting Longstreet. You were there. (Applause, 
and a voice, "Hurrah for Hancock.") You saw them going 
hand to hand; you heard the belching guns, 250 at a time; 
you heard the roar of the thunder; you heard the noise of 
battle; you saw the smoke, and the dust of the earth, and 
men rushing at each other and drawing blood. You saw 
the Nation in agony. You saw the South boasting against 
the North. You were there, part of you. You were there 
and saw the glorious victory of July 3rd, 1863. 

You were not all there. Part of you were with Grant 
at Vicksburg. Part of you had been away back into the 
country, cut off from supplies a hundred miles ; you had been 
throwing up breast works; you had waited and waited for 
Vicksburg to surrender, starving them out; you saw in the 
darkness the light of the ships coming down, and grand old 
Farragut with his two boats together, and his men march- 
ing by. 

You were there and saw it, and took part in it, part of you. 
And when the last boat struck upon the sands of the old 
Mississippi, and they were obliged to take the men off, and 
spike the guns, and fire the boat, you were there when the 
shells exploded. You were there when Pemberton sent the 
words over to Grant, "Upon what terms may we surren- 
der?" and when Grant said, "Unconditional surrender." 
You were there. 

You were not all there; part of you were with grand old 
General Thomas at Chicamauga. Fighting all day long; 
standing like a wall of iron against a sea of fire. Standing 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 51 

and kept fighting away into the night, until he was beaten 
if he had known it; fighting until he had gained the name, 
'The rock of Chicamauga." (Applause.) You were not all 
there. 

Part of you were in the valley at Chattanooga, hemmed 
in, hedged in, supplies cut off, railroads cut off; supplies 
coming over two ranges of mountains; you were on short 
rations, half rations. You were there, going down to the 
horse troughs, and putting your hands in and taking the 
grain and putting it into your pockets and parching it to 
keep from starving to death. You were there in that scene 
in the valley, hedged in and hemmed in. You were there 
when Bragg held Lookout Mountain. You were there 
when Sherman was above, towards Cleveland, Tenn. You 
were there when Grant was on Cemetery Hill. You were 
there when Gordon Grainger and Thomas and the great 
generals of the war had congregated there, and when they 
let the pontoon bridges, sixty in number, come down the 
Tennessee River, and halted in the night by the side of 
Lookout Mountain — you remember that. You remember 
the steep ascent, and the slant on the other side towards the 
valley. You remember, on November 24th, 1863, how 
Hooker stole up the side of the mountain, having crossed 
the bridges, and how he went up the steep ascent; how he 
climbed away up towards the skies; how he planted the 
banner, and Grant spied it from Cemetery Ridge, and said,. 
"Hooker is fighting above the clouds." You were there, 
and you saw the fighting and beheld the flag; you heard 



52 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

the order, you saw the charge. You saw them driven be- 
fore the bayonet. You were there when they drove them 
down the valley like cattle into the valley. And when they 
cheered till the earth trembled, when they cheered above 
the roar of the guns, you were there and saw them go into 
the valley, and you saw them embrace each other; you saw 
them in the height of their enthusiasm start to scale the 
ridge. Grant said, "Who gave that command?" Sheridan 
said, "Not I, General." Gordon Grainger said, "Not I, 
General," and Thomas said, "I guess they took their own 
command, General," and once started all hell could not keep 
them back. (Cheers and continued applause.) 

They scaled Missionary Ridge, captured the valley — the 
Chattanooga Valley, Lookout Mountain — fighting up there 
above the clouds; and the victory was one grand celebra- 
tion all over the country. That was the year, that season 
of 1863, a year of storm. In every place there is the flag; 
the flag we started ahead with, and close to the very edge, 
the flag was always there. There is no flinching with the 
flag; it is always in the front; it is always on the edge of 
victory. It means the Nation's life. 

At the end of these battles, all over the country, we 
thought the war was over; but up to now we had been 
fighting with one hand and feeding with the other, and 
Grant was put in command. And Grant said to Sheridan, 
"Come with me and lay waste the Shenandoah Valley; drill 
your men in the wheat-fields." War is dreadful, war is 
terrible, war is earnest, and thev laid waste the valley. And 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 53 

he said to Sherman, ''Start towards the sea," and Sherman 
mowed a swath forty miles wide, clear down to the sea. He 
said, "Come with me; chase down the army of Lee." 

Another year was over, and there at Spottsylvania, there 
at Appomatox Court-house, Lee handed over his sword, 
and Grant had won the victory. 

It was not Grant alone — the hero of so many battles; it 
was the common soldier, so-called — the private soldier, the 
righting soldiers. 

In 1865, just after that great victory, they murdered the 
best man this country ever knew. (Applause.) Murdered 
— killed him; why? His fame — they did not kill him in 
that sense, for by the side of Caesar, Alexander and Napo- 
leon, his name stands like the Washington Monument, the 
highest monument in the world, in contrast to theirs in the 
dust. 

We took that hero of a hundred battles, that silent soldier 
whom you fought with, and we made him President tw T ice, 
and then he started around the world. Started with the 
flag that was made whole. He started with the flag that 
was respected then. He went over to England, and Queen 
Victoria came down twenty-eight steps to say "God bless 
you, General Grant, for your country's sake.*' (Applause.) 
And Bismarck locked arms with him, and went with him 
through the gardens of Germany. He was given medals 
and charts, and freedom of cities, and canes, and offered 
titles, but he declined them. He passed under the giant 
arch at Jerusalem made of flags. He crossed over to the 



54 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

old world to places where English-speaking people had 
never been — to the presence of the nobility of China and 
Japan. 

He returned; he came to his own native country, and he 
was met by whom? The Mayor of the city, and the officers 
of the city, and the distinguished men and women — all; 
and he was met by the school children, and the little girls. 
With a basket on one arm and a flag in one hand, they met 
him at the dock, and actually filled his pathway with roses 
and flowers, so that he walked upon them all the way to his 
carriage and into the hotel; and then the great man, the 
strong man, the hero of a hundred battles, he who had never 
been conquered, the silent man, broke into tears. Unac- 
customed to weep, Grant was touched, as he was never 
touched before, by the patriotism of the rising generation — 
by the little flags, and the flowers, and the school children. 



LA FAYETTE. 



(From a beautiful address to the Michigan Club by Henry 
D. Esterbook, of Omaha.) 

"Shall I," asks Balzac, ''shall I tell you how to make your 
way in the world? You must plow through humanity like 
a cannon ball, or glide through it like a pestilence." 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 55 

Men will, of course, make way for a cannon ball, but 
what pleasure does the cannon ball have in that? It is of 
iron, without sensibility. If it have a feeling it is a feeling 
of pride, which is harder than iron and a thousand times 
more cruel. Men will succumb to a pestilence, but what 
joy does the pestilence take in that? Its crown is a wreath 
of snakes, its breath the vapor of graves, its laugh the gibber 
of a corpse. 

How can I extract, condense, and fuse into the limits of 
this response the combined essence of the life and soul of 
La Fayette — a life crowded from youth to age with hero- 
isms, adventures and romance; a soul, luminous and glori- 
ous with its love of right! I have felt as though I must 
bring here and read to you the entire correspondence 
between La Fayette and Washington; not for the effusive 
affection shown by the young officer for his chieftain, but 
because his impetuous devotion penetrated that wonderful 
reserve which has baffled history, and led even so redoubted 
a patriot as Mr. Ingersoll to say: "Washington has become 
a steel engraving." 

A few years after their deliverance by Napoleon this 
gracious woman died at the old chateau, attended by her 
husband. Every act of her life had been a token of her 
love, but it was reserved for this last illness to reveal its 
height and depth and amazing plenitude. Her death was 
the transfiguration, the apotheosis of love. Poor La 
Fayette could only sit at her bedside and with streaming 



56 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

eyes and breaking heart listen to the gushing ecstacy of her 
affection. He assured her that she was loved and valued. 
"Nay," she said, with wan coquetry, "I care not to be valued 
if I am only loved. Ah, my husband, there was a period 
when, after one of your returns from America, I felt myself 
so forcibly attracted to you that I thought I should faint 
every time you came into the room. I was possessed with 
the fear of annoying you, and tried to moderate my feelings. 
What gratitude I owe to God," she would repeat, "that such 
passionate feelings should have been a duty." Again in her 
delirium she had said: "If you do not find yourself suffi- 
ciently loved, lay the fault on God; He hath not given me 
more faculties than that I love you, christianly, humanly, 
passionately." 

I have chosen these sentences from a letter of La Fayette, 
written in holy confidence to a friend. It seems almost 
sacrilege that it should ever have been published. And 
yet, not so. Perhaps in years to come, some sublimated 
Zola, searching for realism, not in the muckheaps of 
humanity, but in the hearts of God's children, will stumble 
onto it and learn how real, how true, how beautiful is human 
love when a man is a moral hero and woman his good 
angel ! (Applause.) 

The fortune of this youth was among the largest in 
Europe. He was accordingly frowned upon by courtiers, 
and humored by the king. If he was thought to be some- 
what erratic, it was only because he had so little to 
say, whereas society expected him to prattle. He evinced, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 57 

moreover, a predilection for his wife. Except for these 
slight aberrations he appeared to be as sane, and almost 
as inane, as nobility in general. 

He made it known to the American Congress that under 
no circumstances was the Marquis de La Fayette to receive 
a commission in its armies. Congress was not only willing 
to oblige the King .of France, but, on its own account, 
thought that the quixotic services of the youthful marquis 
might prove more embarrassing than useful. Washington,, 
moreover, shared the same opinion. He, poor man, had 
seen enough of foreign adventurers. So that upon his 
arrival, La Fayette was graciously received, and as graci- 
ously ignored. It was under these circumstances, and when 
his cherished plans had little hope of realization, that he 
addressed to Congress this brief but immortal note: 

''After the sacrifices I have made I have the right to exact 
two favors : one is to serve at my own expense, the other is 
to serve as a volunteer.'' 

They reached the camp of. Washington in time to witness 
a review of troops. There were 11,000 men, possibly the 
forlornest ever calling themselves an army. Their muni- 
tions were wretched, their clothing ragged, and without any 
attempt at uniformity in cut or color; their evolutions were 
original, not to say grotesque. But they were Americans,, 
.and Washington was their leader. 

"We should feel some embarrassment,'' Washington 
observed, "in showing ourselves to an officer who has just 
left the armies of France." 



58 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

« 

"Sir/' replied La Fayette, "it is to learn and not to teach 
that I am here." 

There spoke, not simply the modesty of the man, but if 
there be any design or meaning in the affairs of men, there 
spoke his destiny: He was here to learn. 

To learn what? To learn first of all, and all in all, Wash- 
ington by heart! To learn his God-like integrity of nature 
— his singleness of purpose and loyalty of faith — his wisdom 
— his justice — his goodness — his loving kindness — his 
prudence in counsel — his courage in action — his deep res- 
pect of self, combined with a divine unselfishness — his 
majesty of patience in defeat — his almost melancholy joy 
in victory. To learn Washington was to learn what God 
meant when He made us in His image ; it was to know man, 
the archetype. Here was a provincial farmer whose pride 
of manhood, compared with the insolence of a king, soared 
into the empyrean, and yet who thought so little of the habil- 
iments of power that all he asked of fortune or of fate were 
the tranquility of Mt. Vernon and the obscurity of his home. 

When, therefore, La Fayette returned to France it was 
not as an effigy of liberty, but as liberty's incendiary. His 
soul, like a torch, had been lighted at that star which first 
beckoned him away, and like a torch he flung it among the 
dry and sapless institutions of his country. The conflagra- 
tion, the holocaust, the nameless crackling which ensued, 
we call the French revolution. 

I could not, if I would, portray the venomous writhings 
of this infernal orgasm ; Carlyle has done it in a vertigo of 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 59 

words. What I would impress upon you is the fact that 
except for La Fayette this revolution never would have 
been. He it was who inspired it, ruled it, was ruled by it, 
emerged from it to confront the sordid splendor of 
Napoleon with the glory of Washington, survived it — 
tyranny, anarchy, despotism — survived it all, and then died, 
like Moses, in sight of the promised land. 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



(Robert G. Ingersoll, in nominating Mr. Blaine before the 
Republican National Convention at Cincinnati in 1876.) 

"Massachusetts may be satisfied with •the loyalty of 
Benjamin H. Bristow; so am I. But if any man nominated 
b>y this convention cannot carry the State of Massachusetts, 
I am not satisfied with the loyalty of that State. If the 
nominee of this convention cannot carry the grand old 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts by 75,000 majority I 
would advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic 
headquarters. I would advise them to take from Bunker 
Hill that old Monument of Glory. The Republicans of the 
United States demand as their leader in the great contest 
of 1876 a man of intellect, a man of integrity, a man of 
well-known and approved political opinion. 



60 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"They demand a statesman. They demand a reformer 
after as well as before the election. They demand a pol- 
itician in the highest, and broadest, and best sense of that 
word. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs, 
with the wants of the people, with not only the requirements 
of the hour, but with the demands of the future. They 
demand a man broad enough to comprehend the relations 
of this government to the other nations of the earth. They 
demand a man well versed in the powers, duties and pre- 
rogatives of each and every department of this government. 
They demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial 
honor of the United States. (Cheers.) One who knows 
enough to know that the national debt must be paid 
through the prosperity of this people; one who knows 
enough to know that all the financial theories in the world 
cannot redeem a single dollar (applause); one who knows 
enough to know that all the money must be made, not by 
law, but by labor (cheers) ; one who knows enough to know 
that the people of the United States have the industry to 
make the money and the honor to pay it over just as fast as 
they make it. The Republicans of the United States de- 
mand a man who knows that prosperity and resumption, 
when they can come, must come together. When they 
come they will come hand in hand; hand in hand through 
the golden harvest-fields; hand in hand by the whirling 
spindles and the turning wheels ; hand in hand past the open 
furnace doors; hand in hand by the flaming forges; hand in 
hand by the chimneys filled with eager fires. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 61 

'This money has got to be dug out of the earth. You 
cannot make it by passing resolutions in a political meeting. 
The Republicans of the United States want a man who 
knows that his government should protect every citizen at 
home and abroad; who knows that any government that 
will not defend its defenders and will not protect its pro- 
tectors is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand 
a man who believes in the eternal separation and divorce- 
ment of church and schools. They demand a man whose 
political reputation is spotless as a star, but they do not 
demand that their candidate shall have a certificate of moral 
character signed by a Confederate Congress. The man who 
has in full habit and unbounded measure all of these splen- 
did qualifications is the present grand and gallant leader 
of the Republican party, James G. Blaine. 

"Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous 
achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of 
the past and prophetic of her future; asks for a man who 
has the audacity of genius; asks for a man w r ho is the 
grandest combination of heart, conscience and brain beneath 
the flag. That man is James G. Blaine. For the Repub- 
lican host led by this intrepid man there can be no such 
thing as defeat. This is a grand year — a year filled with 
the recollection of the revolution; filled with proud and 
tender memories of the sacred past; filled with the legends 
of liberty. A year in which the sons of freedom will drink 
from the fountain of enthusiasm; a year in which the people 
call for a man who has preserved in Congress what our 



62 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

soldiers won upon the field (cheers); a year in which we 
call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the 
tongue of slander (applause); a man that has snatched the 
mask of Democracy from the hideous face of Rebellion; a 
man who, like an intellectual athlete, stood in the arena of 
debate, challenged all comers, and who up to the present 
moment is a total stranger to defeat. Like an armed warrior, 
like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the 
halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance 
full and fair against the brazen forehead of every defamer 
of this country and maligner of its honor. For the Repub- 
lican party to desert that gallant man now is as though an 
army should desert their general upon the field of battle. 
James G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer 
of the sacred standard of the Republic. I call it sacred, 
because no human being can stand beneath its folds without 
becoming and without remaining free. (Cheers.) 

"Gentlemen of the convention, in the name of the Great 
Republic, the only republic that ever existed upon this 
earth; in the name of all her defenders and of all her sup- 
porters; in the name of all her soldiers living; in the name 
of all her soldiers that died upon the field of battle, and in 
the name of those that perished in the skeleton clutches of 
famine at Andersonville and Libby (cheers), whose suffering 
he so eloquently remembers, Illinois nominates for the next 
President of this country that prince of parliamentarians, 
that leader of leaders, James G. Blaine/' (Loud and pro- 
tracted cheers.) 



CHAPTER II. 



ADDRESSES TO SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL GATH- 
ERINGS. 

ADDRESS TO REAL ESTATE AGENTS— ADDRESS TO SALES- 
MEN—ADDRESS TO SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY— ADDRESS 
TO WOMEN IN THE CHURCH— ADDRESS ON THE FARM 
ROY— ADDRESS TO MEDICAL STUDENTS— ADDRESS TO 
THE MACCABEES— ADDRESS TO NEWSBOYS— ADDRESS 
TO DRUGGISTS— ADDRESS TO RETAIL GROCERS. 

POINTS ON SAVING MONEY. 



(Used at a Banquet to Real Estate Agents.) 

A Chicago real estate dealer, who at a banquet of real 
estate dealers evidently spoke from actual experience, said: 
I have been in the business of selling land near our city 
twenty years, and count myself well up in the line of land 
booming (having told all the lies I could about it), but the 
facts have been so much stronger than the lies, about the 
change in value, that it would take me forty years to make 
people believe what has actually happened in the last twenty. 
(Applause.) I shall never be able to catch up with the truth 
of land advances. 

General Butler lately said: "More money has been made 
and saved in the last sixty years in Boston on real estate, 
than from all other causes combined." ' One of the old 
grandfathers of the Astors is said to have, found a keg of 



64 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Spanish gold in New York and invested it in corner lots, 
and kept it invested till the Astors now own one-twelfth of 
all New York real estate, exclusive of buildings, and yearly 
spend ten million dollars in repairs and improvements, and 
lead the select four hundred in society, and verify Butler's 
saying: More money is made and saved in the land in and 
adjoining cities, than in all other industries. 

What is true of New York, Boston and Chicago, is tru« 
of Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Louisville and San Fran- 
cisco. If we call the roll of our heavy men, we will find they 
have saved the bulk of their money in land transactions. It 
was General Cass, who wanted, before the war, to sell the 
great Cass farm for twenty thousand dollars, that is now 
worth twenty millions. It was General Alger who bought 
pine lands at two dollars an acre and sold the pine for a hun- 
dred dollars an acre, and is now yearly dividing the profits 
with the poor. It was the enormous rise in land values 
that made the Brush estate worth millions, and you may 
safely conclude that more money is made and saved in the 
leading cities of the country in land than in any other kind 
of business, and of all the men who have invested money in 
lands in the center of large cities, not one in one thousand 
have failed to realize handsomely on their investments. 
This is really a high compliment to the real estate business 
as a calling. 

These results are from legitimate real estate business, and 
minded to-night of the days of Abram and Lot. Their 
not by men who degrade their calling. \Ye have been re- 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 65 

real estate dealings were friendly. Lot and Abram subdi- 
vided; Lot took the Jordan valley and Abram the hills of 
Canan. There is only one shyster real estate dealer named 
in the New Testament; that was the old man Satan, himself, 
who took the Saviour to the top of a high mountain and 
offered to deed him the universe on conditions, but the Sa- 
viour demanded his abstract, and to know by what author- 
ity he offered so much earth, and failing to show his author- 
ity, Satan was relegated, as all shyster dealers should be, 
to a rear seat in the real estate business. 



THE CHEERFUL SALESMAN. 

(At a Salesmen's Banquet.) 

Every salesman has reason to be thankful for the pros- 
pects before him in the spring sales of merchandise. With 
the low price of goods, the adjournment of Congress, the 
opening of factories and new suburban street car lines, the 
great soda ash works, a new county court house and more 
than all, a return of confidence, new purchases actually com- 
pulsory, times must soon be better. 

There has been no time since 1892 when business pros- 
pects looked better and brighter in iron, copper, lumber, 

groceries and dry goods than at present, and you have many 

d 



66 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

reasons to be cheerful and happy over the prospects. By 
you will be carried the good news all over the nation. 

It is not for a lawyer to give you pointers on selling 
goods, but I may tell you that the one thing that has brought 
me the most genuine pleasure and happiness in life has been 
the daily practice of a cheerful disposition. 

The best salesman I ever knew was a pleasant fruit tree 
dealer. He had sold us thirty fruit trees, and when he called 
three of the number were dead and useless, and we com- 
plained of it. He took it in good part and asked: "How 
would you like to sell me any ten of those that did grow for 
all you paid for the thirty?" That was a poser. "How 
would you like to sell any five that I may choose for the 
whole price?" Then he added: "In two years any one will 
be worth the whole outlay." He was so mild, fair and good 
tempered that he made a fine impression and sold a half 
dozen large orders in the village. His success came in his 
having learned to take things with a cheerful temper. 

The real trials of a salesman are from the hardship of 
travel. They will soon be lessened. The time will come 
when men will be allotted their territory, a state or half a 
state, or many states, and all orders from the district will 
be to them duly credited. By the long distance telephone 
they will soon be in easy circumstances. A call at Vernor's 
drug store led me to hear this conversation. A remark was 
made about his clear-toned phone, when the salesman said : 
"I live out on the Cass farm and happened to be in Boston 
not long ago and knowing my boy had been under the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 67 

weather, I called him up by long 'phone and had not talked 
three minutes when something he said made me laugh; and 
he said, 'that's you, pa, I know your laugh;' that was eight 
hundred miles away — heard on the Cass farm." 

This is the key to the whole matter. It may not be in 
our day, but I think it will come when sales will be made 
by long distance telephones, and large outlays in travel 
greatly lessened. It is a solution of trade more important 
than the Bacon cipher. It touches a million of the brightest 
men in America, her salesmen. How would it sound to 
take in a few dozen orders like these? Listen! You hear 
the 'phone ring and answer: 

"Is this P., D. & Co.?" 

"Yes." 

"This is Niles. Is Mr. Label in?" 

"Not at present. He is on a yacht ride." 

"Tell him, please (the voice is a sweet sixteener), to send 
one dozen of Cascara Segrada, 12 gross quinine, and six 
dozen large lead pencils to give away to customers." 

Here is one from Vassar: 

"This is W. J. Gould & Co. Mr. Likins in? Ah, good. 
He is always at his post. Mr. Likins, this is Vassar. Will 
you kindly ship us six chests of gunpowder, and six young 
Hyson teas, four barrels of rice and twenty sacks old govern- 
ment Java? What a marvelous thing this long 'phone is." 

Ring! Ring! 

"Oh, I forgot; will you call in Mayor Pingree's foreman., 
Mr. Frank Pingree? 



68 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

''This Mr. Pingree — brother to the Mayor? Send us, 
please (this is Wheat & Co., Vassar), full assortment of your 
best spring style shoes, one case each kind. Credit the sale 
to Mr. Howarth." 

"This John J. Bagley & Co.? Is Mr. Somers in?" 
"He is out riding with a party at Belle Isle at present. 
What can we do to make you happy?" 

"Tell him to send Piatt & Co., Muskegon, ioo pounds of 
Mayflower, ioo pounds of smoking and 50 pounds of Navy 
plug. We are fitting out a lumber camp near by. Good 
bye." 

"This is J. K. Burnham & Co. Mr. Will Stoepel in? 
Call him please. Say, Will, if it isn't convenient to run over 
here to Grand Ledge, send two dozen bolts Lonsdale sheet- 
ing, 30 bolts Amoskeag, 6 dozen pieces of spring ging- 
hams. C. O. D. Good bye." 

So that Salesman Label may ride in a yacht and Likins 
may receive orders by 'phone and Pingree may sell shoe or- 
ders, and Somers may sell Mayflower, and Stoepel sell dry 
goods over the long distance 'phone and neither carry sam- 
ples. 

And I have another day dream like this : It comes to the 
worn out retail dry goods clerk and makes him cheerful — 
it is a lady with a bundle. She says: "I've brought back 
all my samples and brought my pocketbook. I come to 
buy my new spring suit. I did not come to look." 

Before these dreams are realized, each salesman must have 
made an impression on his customers, for friendship brings 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 69 

him trade. Fasten the Carlyle rule in your minds. Write 
it on your hearts. Engrave it on your bones. Success in 
life, in anything, depends upon the number that one can 
make himself agreeable to. 



ADDRESS TO SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY. 






Response to Toast "To the Ladies." 

(Selection used on the occasion of the opening of a School 
of Industry for Young Men and Women. The response is 
directed mainly to the ladies, that far outnumber the gentle- 
men.) 

I will speak to the ladies, for the gentlemen have already 
spoken for themselves. Some said as we came into the hall, 
this is the ladies' banquet. The ladies of the church pre- 
pared it. Evidently the little girls had a share in it, and the 
old sign kept in heathen gardens is not a very familiar one 
in this community. It was a sign nailed upon the trees by 
the side of the fountain, which read, "Beware, no little girls 
allowed to be drowned here." And this reminds me of an- 
other, which is in the line of training. A man said in years 
gone by : "I once settled by a cemetery because the rent was 
cheaper. On seeing the mournful processions pass into 
the cemetery day after day my two little boys, nine and 



70 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

twelve, soon commenced to imitate the burial of the dead 
by digging in the earth and covering up boxes with solemn 
faces, and I said, that will not do to bring up our children in 
that manner; so we moved near a market place and I soon 
found my two boys imitating the hucksters on the market 
and crying aloud, as if to sell their pretended wares in close 
imitation of the auction man; and I said this w T ill never do, 
and we settled near a school house and at the exercises the 
scholars were declaiming and reading essays, and my chil- 
dren very soon commenced to imitate them and I said, this 
is the place to bring up our children, where they may learn 
the noblest sentiments known to man. 

There is a legend in one of the old books of my library 
called the "Story of Panthea." Panthea was captured by 
the soldiers of Cyrus in a contest with the Assyrian army. 
When they brought the glad news to Cyrus of their wonder- 
ful victory they said, "We have brought you, oh, king, a most 
beautiful maiden. Even as she sat upon the ground cov- 
ered with her veils, we saw that she was a superior creature, 
but when she rose up and stood erect she was so divinely 
tall and graceful in her carriage that I do declare she is the 
most beautiful creature in all Asia, and we have brought her 
to thee, oh, king, as a present to thee, and a trophy of our 
victory." And King Cyrus said, "If half what you say of her 
is true, I will not dare to look upon her, engrossed, as I am, 
with the affairs of state; should I gaze upon her once. 1 
might be tempted to see her another time. No, I will not 
see her. But care w r ell for her, see that no harm comes to 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 71 

her, for if she is a being, like you say she is, she will bring 
great influence to our kingdom." 

And Cyrus placed a man in charge of Panthea, and he 
said early in his guardianship, "Fair lady, I know that your 
husband must have been a prince, but our King Cyrus will 
deal more kindly with you than even he, your husband, 
could have done." At the mention of her husband, Panthea 
broke into tears, and tearing away her veil, uncovered her 
face and her hands, and said, "Speak not to me of aught 
against my husband," and yet the man persisted and hinted 
that the separation from her husband was a lasting one. 

Panthea sent word to the king, and another guard was 
placed over her, with direction to treat her with the utmost 
kindness, Cyrus having heard of the insult already offered 
her. He called the culprit before him, and rebuked him 
sharply. He could have taken his life, but he remarked to 
the second keeper, "It is not so very strange after all, that he 
was in love with her, for gods and men are alike in love 
with beautiful women." (Applause.) Not long after the 
second keeper took charge of Panthea, he, too, became en- 
chanted with her charms, partly by association, partly by 
mutual kindness, and partly by her beauty, and this news 
w T as conveyed to Cyrus, who said, "Surely, a creature of such 
influence must be of use to our kingdom ;" and he sent word 
to Panthea, and bade her call her husband, and come and be 
an ally to the forces of Cyrus. 

Which offer Aberidates, Panthea's husband, gladly ac- 
cepted, and hurried forward to meet his long absent wife, 



72 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

bringing with him a thousand men and a thousand horses, 
and cheerfully joining in the forces of Cyrus. War came 
on, and partly by lot, and partly by design, Aberidates took 
an important command in a dreadful battle. Before leav- 
ing, Panthea came to bid him good bye, and placing her 
hand upon his shoulder, said, "My good husband, you are 
going to battle for our king, for him who did so generously 
save us for each other. No woman loves r her husband more 
than Panthea loves thee, but remember we both love honor 
more. Let no act of yours this day bring discredit to the 
cause of Cyrus, but battle bravely, as if both Cyrus and Pan- 
thea were standing by your side." 

The battle was a fierce one. At one time the forces of 
Aberidates were surrounded by the forces of Croesius as by 
a strong brick wall, but, fighting with superhuman energy, 
he cut through the lines and gained a marvelous victory. 
Losing his own life in the contest, being hacked to pieces, 
his arms cut off at the wrist and his head almost severed 
from his body. On hearing of his fate, Cyrus mounted his 
horse and rode hurriedly to the field. On dismounting, he 
found Panthea kneeling on one knee, holding the head of 
her husband in her lap, and he reached out and took Aberi- 
dates by the hand, for his body was still warm. On touch- 
ing the hand it parted at the wrist, and Panthea said, "Oh, 
take him not apart, it was my words that did cheer him and 
urge him to this fate;" and Cyrus said, "I will raise a monu- 
ment to his memory, and generations shall call him great. 
Say what thou wilt, and go where thou wouldst, and I will 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 73 

send thee." But Panthea said, "Leave me with my husband 

yet a little while, and then you shall know where I would be 

sent;" and Cyrus returned to his camp and Panthea, being 

« 
alone, seized a poniard and buried it in her breast, falling 

dead by the side of her husband. They were buried in one 
grave, as two who did great honor to each other. 

It is not the solemn part, but the cheering part. It is not 
the tragic ending, but the intense devotion; it is not the mar- 
riage of the two, but the influence of Panthea that enforces 
the lesson you are teaching in this school. These young 
women are the Pantheas of this institute. The women of the 
churches are the Pantheas of the churches. They are the 
ones in every movement of reform that touch their husbands, 
their brothers, their friends and their sweethearts on the 
shoulders and bid them fight valiantly in every good under- 
taking. 



THE STARS OF THE CHURCHES. 



I am glad to-night, and you must all be pleased to receive 
the sanction of the seal of the great State of Michigan, by 
the keeper of the seal, Washington Gardner, on this enter- 
prise. And you will soon be proud to hear for the first time 
in your midst, one of the largest, and most eloquent, and I 
believe, one of the very best circuit judges in the whole State 



74 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

of Michigan — Judge Frazer. I had also hoped to welcome 
that little "Daniel come to judgment," Judge Chapin, but he 
has failed to come to judgment on account of sickness. 

It was my privilege to attend in boyhood, a theater where 
the actors were all stars. It was a brilliant gathering in 
New York. The house was packed like this one, and even 
the minor parts were well and harmoniously taken. It was 
the play of David Garrick, where a stage-struck maiden is 
cured of her desire to go upon the stage by a play in which 
the mirror of life is held up before her until she can see her- 
self clearly. And I have thought to-night as I looked over 
this brilliant assemblage, that the secret of the success of this 
church is, that so many of our actors are stars. I mean 
that Plymouth Church is unlike the ordinary church, for it 
is composed of a live and active lot of working people, 
every one of them having in their eyes, hands, and hearts, 
something of interest to the rest. There is a kind of touch 
elbows all through the church and all over the society. 
And I thought I would speak a moment on the stars of the 
church. The stars of the church, of course, are the women 
of the church. You take the women out of this gathering 
or any large church gathering, and where is it? Take the 
working women out of the churches, and where are the 
churches? Why, at one place over at Morenci they had a 
church debt, I think it was less than $100, and the women 
said, "We will raise it at a dollar apiece." And they took 
a novel way of raising it. Each one was to raise a dollar; 
one dug two bushels of potatoes and sold them; one saved 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 75 

out the light pieces of washing and paid her dollar; one 
"baked extra bread; another sold a pair of gaiterettes; an- 
other shaved her husband ten times at ten cents each time. 
Then they got together and had an experience meeting and 
told of all these little things that happened when they were 
alone, and charged admission. And when the woman told 
about shaving her husband, she said, "Oh, my! but that was 
hard work;" and her husband, in hearing, said, "You are 
jolly right it was hard work on me," and that brought the 
riouse down. 

I happened to be over in Indianapolis in ^2, and there 
listened to that wonderful orator, Gen. Butler; and in the 
course of his address he made a graphic explanation of the 
story of the spoons in New Orleans, and in the course of 
that argument to 10,000 people, and long before he was half 
•done, there were fully a hundred men standing up on the 
seats, beating their hands together and saying: "Hit him 
agin, Ben, give it to him, go for him!" That is the spirit 
that we get sometimes in the churches and in institutions, 
but very rarely. There is generally a cold reserve, a hold- 
ing back, something that is lacking in the church. 

In the great Roman play of Virginius, where the father 
seeks to rescue a little daughter, Virginia, that had been 
stolen from him, you remember the father says, as he sees 
he must lose his daughter: "Give me men and I will rescue 
her! Where are the men? Give me men, with hearts in 
their hands, and I will rescue her! The hand is no stronger 
than the heart! Give me men!" But there are no men, 



76 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

and he goes over to his tender little girl and talks with her 
a moment, and while talking with her he drives a dagger 
to her heart rather than that she should become the prey 
of an unworthy despot. Give me men in the churches; 
give me men in society; give me men in position; give me 
men and I will rescue the state; give me men and I will 
rescue the country. The world wants men. The church 
needs men. The women control it. The women are the 
stars of the churches in every city of our country. 



THE FARMER BOY. 



(From Fourth of July Address to Farmers.) 

"It is better for the nation and the state when all men 
are free." 

Our early settlers were willing to brave a stormy voyage, 
the dangers of life among savages, rather than endure the 
oppression of the old world. 

Take the story of wars from the histories of all countries 
but ours and their histories would be blank. Other nations 
have been held together by the cannon and bayonet, ours is 
held by intelligence. Egypt had her pyramids, Greece had 
her scholars and her slaves, Caesar ruled Rome in cruelty, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 77 

Alexander and Napoleon failed in war, William holds Ger- 
many together with a two million army, but one man in our 
country has cut the knot and found the key to rulership. 
Born a poor farmer boy, in his own hard struggle with pov- 
erty he learned the lesson, and of all the kings and rulers 
on earth none have yet equaled plain Abraham Lincoln, of 
of Illinois. * * * The farm boy is raised near the soil, 
with broad and deep sympathy, strong, hardy frame and de- 
termined will power. He is trained by his own mother, and 
never afraid to work. His hope, his cheer, his courage and 
his ambition are all implanted by a friend and not by a 
nurse. "Give your boy to a slave to be educated and you 
will have two slaves." Train him at home and he will not 
depart from it. 

Gladstone chops trees at eighty to brighten his majestic 
intellect. Bismarck keeps his farm, his dogs and his cattle. 
Burns grew to fame on the soil. Webster and Clay were 
farm boys. Edmunds and Marshall and Howard and 
Grant were raised upon a farm and inherited industry. A 
healthy body, a moderate income, a well trained mind — 
these were the Greek elements of happiness. The farmer 
has them all. 

Let me write it on your hearts to educate your children. 
Our duty to-day is not in war, but in citizenship. Let us 
sort immigration, exclude dangerous classes, stop raising 
criminals and raise industrious men and women in honor of 
the state. We do not train horses to run by leaving them 
in the field to see others run, but we put them on the track 



78 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

and train them there with other runners. Let the light of 
education, which is better than a dozen trades, shine into 
your children's minds, and they will be broader and have a 
grander life. Teach them morals at home, and they will 
be upright men and women. 

In that beautiful story of James leaving home, we see 
the family in the morning walking to and fro before the 
open fire-place, hardly knowing whether to smile or to cry. 
Then the mother speaks: "I have put a couple of pairs of 
warm socks and needle book in your satchel, James, for 
you may not find one to quite take your mother's place." 
Then the children bid James good-bye, and the stage ap- 
proaches. The father lays his hand on his son's shoulder 
and says: "My son, you are about to leave us. You may 
forget your father and your mother, and your brothers and 
your sisters, but, oh, do not forget your God;'' and that les- 
son is not lost. It is written deep in the heart of the boy 
and will be there forever. 

The hope of young men is in our country. It is not in 
Germany, in France or in England; it is here, where all 
men are free. And if the boys struggle in hardship, so much 
the better and stronger they will be. In Manchester where 
operatives have worked on half time, and taken studies 
the other half, they have far outrun the whole day stu- 
dents in the schools. It is not the forenoon scholars, but 
those that develop the body and the mind together that ex- 
cel in after years of experience. Thoug-ht — strong, original 
thought — independent thinking is what is needed. We 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 79 

want more honor and integrity, more courage and convic- 
tion, more freedom for men and women. In the story of 
the revolution not ten women are mentioned in eight long 
years of hardship. But the State of [Michigan has lately 
said to women, "Come up higher. Come up at least to the 
level of a foreigner of two years' residence. Come up and 
vote if vou can read the Constitution.'' 



ADDRESS TO MEDICAL STUDENTS. 



The only reason for inviting a lawyer to speak to a medi- 
cal class is to show how much more the class knows than 
the speaker came to tell them. It is a sort of side light to 
show off the real genius of the student; to put some one else 
under the saw and lancet; to hurt him and to enjoy his 
torture. 

In running up and down the world I have found doctors, 
ever so much worse than juries; while one stubborn juror 
sometimes will hang out, the doctors almost always dis- 
agree. 

In Chicago, not long ago, I listened to a long trial. A 
brick had fallen from a building and struck a man on the 
side of his head, and all the doctors said it hurt the other" 
side. I concluded that the dangerous side was always the 
farthest from the accident; and that was literally true. In 



80 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

the Quincy explosion, where three men were in the mill, 
one stood at his post as fireman, the other two stood back 
near the wall. After the boiler exploded the man at his 
post was found some four rods away, blown through the 
open space where the wall was torn out; the other two men 
near the rear wall were mashed to a jelly by the concussion. 
The ways of explosions and the ways of some medical men 
are fast being found out, and they result in surprises. 

This leads me to the real use of doctors. In a world of 
rapid transit, in the age of fast cars and fast horses and 
whirling machinery, there is a constant danger of accident, 
and here we must meet the doctor in all his "glory. It is 
here that he can mend the broken body and heal the 
bruised limb, soothe pain and save life. It is the grandest 
opportunity of his life to stop the loss of blood, and set 
life's wheels in regular motion by the art of knowing how. 
Indeed, surgery is one of the greatest sciences that the 
world has ever known. 

It is not a very high compliment to physicians that one- 
half of the race die in infancy; and children have many 
reasons to complain that the science of medicine does not 
reach their condition. The day must come when doctors 
can meet and master diphtheria and rheumatism and other 
incurable complaints, all bunched under the one great head 
of malaria. When a doctor don't know what ails me, he 
says it's malaria. 

Here is an opportunity worthy of a student's ambition; 
better than the Keely motor, better than the telephone or 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 81 

the phonograph; of him who invents a diphtheria cure the 
praises will be sung for generations. 

The medical profession has a new rival in Christian 
Science, which is founded after the manner of the Aladdin 
Lamp stories, of wishing you were there, and you instantly 
get there. 

You all remember the three brothers that fell in love with 
one girl, as reported by Aladdin. They all started out to 
find the most wonderful thing, and he that found it within 
the year was to win the fair maiden and wed her. The 
first found a man selling small pieces of carpet — rugs we 
call them. The salesman said, if one but steps upon this 
elegant carpet he can wish, and instantly the carpet will 
bear him to any place and carry him to any object. (This 
would be a great scheme for a doctor on a cold night when 
called far out into the limits.) Well, he bought it, and paid 
a fabulous price — what cared he for the price, especially if 
a wealthy young doctor, and young doctors are expected 
to be wealthy. . i | ■ ■■ ■ \ 

The next brother came to a man selling fine telescopes. 
The auctioneer urged that any object could be seen through 
it, however distant. Instantly the love-sick brother said, 
I'll buy it, and he bought it to see his girl far away; and lo! 
his girl was sick nigh unto death. He was in great anxiety, 
as people all are under such circumstances. 

Meanwhile the third brother had found a man in Venice 
selling a wonderful cure. (I presume a patent medicine, 
like Wizard oil or Mrs. Lydia Pinkham's syrup.) It 



82 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

would cure everything — headache, earache, sideache, etc.; 
and hearing that the girl was sick, the other brother thought 
to buy a bottle, and did buy it. 

The three brothers met to compare notes and see who had 
the most wonderful discovery, and which do you think it 
was? The boy with the glass was first to speak. "There she 
is," he says. "Oh! that I could be near her." The medi- 
cine man cries, "Oh, that she could have but a few drops of 
my all-healing, never-failing medicine, but how can I reach 
her ere she may die?" Then the carpet man suggests, "Let 
us all go and leave her to decide;" and away they sailed on 
the carpet. But which got her, which one was he — the 
lucky one — no mortal has yet found out; of course, we 
guess it was he that rescued her — the doctor. 

We are in search of discoveries, of strange cures and 
marvelous sights and wonders. We will find them near us, 
all around us; they are in reach and ever near our notice. 

The first discovery of medical science was seen in the 
treatment of General Grant; when the grand old hero lay 
in the last stern agony; when death seemed untieing his 
very heart strings one by one; when the warm breath 
ceased; when the light left the eyes and the purple currents 
were fast freezing. With one turn of the lancet and a touch 
of science, Dr. Douglas rallied his patient and revived him, 
and after he was as one dead he was restored, and completed 
that marvelous work that will pass down the ages as a 
master-piece of simple and beautiful English — equal to 
Addison, Macaulav or Washington Irving. 



SPEECHES AXD SPEECH-MAKING. 83 

And in view of the actual wonders of our day, has the 
Aladdin story far outrun real discoveries? The man with 
the carpet, that could take one anywhere, is conductor of a 
sleeping car or an ocean steamer, and all we need do is to 
pay fare and be carried to any wished-for place on either 
continent. The man with a glass is measuring the heavens 
by night, and has already counted four million stars that he 
has taken portraits of, heretofore all invisible. The medi- 
cine man has worked so many wonders, in vaccination, 
anesthetics and modern discoveries, that to believe one-half 
of what we hear is a compliment to doctors. 

But the end is not yet, though the " 'phone" and the 
"wheel," the "cars" and the "steam,-' and the "wire," and the 
light, and the heat, and the wonders of science are beyond 
all comprehension; and the doctors must run to keep up. 

If it were wise to give advice on such occasions I would 
say: "Watch the latest: be ready for the critical cases.'' The 
prizes of life come most often to the skillful and upright; 
the deserving, in any battle, must in the long run be re- 
warded. 

Xot every bud becomes the perfect flower : 
Xot every bird sings sweetly as the lark. 
And the swift arrow, shot with certain power, 
May cleave the air or fail to reach the mark. 
So must we struggle on. and never be 
Dismayed, disheartened at ambition crossed; 
Our work wrought out in patience silently. 
Is worth to everv one whate'er it cost. 



84 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



WELCOME MACCABEES. 



What a splendid lot of people the Maccabees are: They 
are born happy; they live happy; they feel happy and they 
grow, like the new married man said of his bride, better and 
better every day. 

The Maccabees, like all great men and women, are born 
in the country, where there is room to be honestly brought 
up and plainly educated. As a class they are not very good 
dudes ; they are of the solid, substantial, home-loving people,, 
that the village, the field and the farm is blessed with. 

They are not perfect! Oh, no. Like the girl said to her 
fellow, they don't expect that; but when she asked him if 
he smoked, he said, "No." "Drink?" "No," "Chew?" 
"No." "Swear?" "No." "No vices? "No." "Then I can't 
have ye, for I must have something to find fault with !" The 
match was "declared off" from that moment. 

The object of the order is not a mystery; it is a simple 
system of caring for our own. Herodotus says that way back 
among the ancients there was a custom at the burials 
where near relatives of the dead would row the body across 
a beautiful lake to a still more beautiful resting place 
beyond. But before entering the last place the bearers were 
obliged to convince the keepers that if it was the body of 
a child seeking burial, the child had been true and obedient 
t" its parents; and it it was a parent, he had been true to his 
offspring. U true and faithful the body could rest with the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 85 

honored dead in long repose. If untrue or cruel, or had 
neglected home, then the body was sent back to be devoured 
hy the fowls of the air, as unworthy of a Christian burial. 

So the lessons of the past come up before us, and we are 
forced to believe that the most sacred of all relations are 
those of home and kindred; that we must remember and 
provide, as far as in us lies, for the feeble and the dependent. 

We are assembled in honor of an event held sacred in our 
history. In this beautiful city we are free to exchange 
hopes and go without pass-words. We are at home with 
each other. We are proud of our membership; we long to 
see it extended. We enjoy the Order and know that it is 
good. 

We need these reunions. to revive our memory. To illus- 
trate by story: A young man came home rather late, and a 
little boozy, and found his wife with her child in arms crying, 
and said: "You don't care for me as you used to, or you 
would not stay out so. I wish you would take this child 
and hold him a while; he cries dreadfully; he is half yours, 
anyway; you ought to be willing to hold him half the time." 

"Half mine is he? Only half mine, anyway! Wal-1, you 
just rock your half and let my half cry!" 



\ 



86 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



A TALK TO NEWSBOYS. 



Little men and little women are not near as little as the 
books for boys, or books for girls, or as the real little boys 
and little girls would be. 

Little men are always older than little boys, and little 
women never wear short dresses, and little men would look 
odd enough with knee-breeches, so we will not depend on 
books for boys, but talk about boys. 

Boys are handy to run on errands, go to the store, call 
the men to dinner, bring a broom down stairs, hold a horse 
while a man lights his cigar; or they are handy to sell 
newspapers, deliver a telegram, run an elevator, or take a 
parcel two miles that cost only a quarter, and could be car- 
ried in the buyer's pocket on the way home — but never 
mind, that would hurt the boy's business. His business is 
to carry the parcel, go to the store or do what they want 
him to, and save what he earns by it; for just as like as not, 
some one wants a boy, and will hire the best one he knows, 
and how can he know who is best till he sends one or more 
after something, or to take something? 

I know a blind boy, Dean Gray, who has been blind since 
childhood, and now he is grown up almost a man. Pie has 
been to the Blind Asylum at Lansing, a big brick building 
on a large hill out beyond the State Capitol, with a great, 
large yard and plenty of trees, flowers and a fine play- 
ground. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 87 

Dean is learning music and to tune pianos for a living. 
He pays $2 a week for board and schooling. At first he 
went without paying, but now he is able, he pays a little 
money. 

He always walks out with some one and seems to know 
all that is going on in town; but he cant see the circus, nor 
the horse race, nor the color of his dog, nor the playmates 
on the street, nor the color of the apples that he eats at 
college. But he is cheerful and happy. After I had seen 
the World's Fair in Chicago and told him all about it, he 
said: "I guess I will not go to the fair this time. There 
isn't much that I could see there." 

This sounds pathetic, but Dean is happier than many 
rich boys, who eat cake and keep awake nights over it. The 
boy that didn't eat cake is the happiest boy the next morn- 
ing. 

You may think the rich boy has a good time. Maybe he 
does. You would like his cart and his little black pony; 
but wait until he grows up. While he rides in a cart you are 
hustling. While you learn to make change and gain con- 
fidence, he is growing up weakly; while you make friends 
and learn business, he is idle, and I had rather trust one 
newsboy to make his way and get on in life than any five 
rich boys I ever saw. The poorest boys, after all, are the 
sons of the rich. They lean on their fathers for everything. 
There is no independence like being able to hustle for your- 
self. How much money does a rich boy own? Xone — not a 
penny. His father owns it; he depends on his father. His 



88 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

father will say, "What did you do with the quarter I gave 
you yesterday?" 



WELCOME TO DRUGGISTS. 



It is an exceedingly great pleasure to welcome a large 
number of happy people to the handsomest city in the State, 
except perhaps the cities that you are from; and I might 
add a word or two by saying that it is a pleasure to welcome 
such a fine body of intelligent men to the finest city in the 
West. But I am reminded, gentlemen, of that saying of 
Lord Chesterfield to his son, "In giving flattery, always give 
it the very opposite of medicine — the strongest doses to the 
weakest patients," and therefore I will not trespass upon 
your matter of medicine. It is unnecessary to say, gentle- 
men, to you of Michigan, that we have in our State, and in 
our city, especially here, some of the largest institutions in 
your line of business. Houses with business extending as 
far west as San Francisco, Kansas City, even into Canada 
and to London, and away off to Australia; certainly some 
of the largest institutions of that kind in the known world. 
We are the home office of ginger ale and sherbet — and that 
means a good drink at each place, I understand, when you 
get around there. We are the home office of other drug 
supplies, and Banner cigars — I suppose that means a smoke, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 89 

if you should happen to be around either of these places. 
We are, gentlemen, celebrated for one other thing in con- 
nection with these houses, that I might state in passing: 
That is, that of all the large drug houses in our city — some 
of them have grown old in the business — not a solitary one 
has ever failed, either morally or financially. We can say 
to you that deal in drugs (and I think I may say it as a law- 
yer, having had considerable experience in closing out small 
drug houses), that you have an advantage of being frequent 
buyers of fresh goods, instead of old, shelf-worn goods — 
shelf-keepers; and if you will point to me a man who has 
failed in business, I will point to you an over-buyer, and 
generally one who has gone far from home, and bought 
a great many things that he was not obliged to buy. And 
if you will point me to a successful business man in your 
line, I will point you to one who has bought of a reliable 
house near by, who had his interest at heart, who was one 
of his State citizens, who could sympathize with him, carry 
him over if need be, who could give him a fresh line of 
goods by telephone or telegram, and help him on the high- 
way of success. There is a man present here to-day who 
remembers one leading druggist, as a man who bought 
from everybody, everywhere in the State and the Union, and 
all over the country, and bought until he over-bought, until 
his brain reeled and his business reeled with it, and he has 
gone down to his long sleep. Had he been a prudent 
buyer of his home houses, had he been a careful druggist, 
an intelligent dealer, he would have been among you to-day. 



90 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Now, gentlemen, you are welcome to our city. You are 
welcome to everything in sight; and if any man interferes 
with your welcome, drug him on the spot. You are wel- 
come to the river, with its beauty and its boats; you are 
welcome to the street cars. We are especially noted for our 
line of street cars, and the harmony with which we manage 
them. Go out, go out among us, go out everywhere. Meet 
with our people, see our beautiful streets and our parks, 
and we will meet you everywhere with a generous welcome; 
and if we have to take any of your medicine while you are 
here, just sugar-coat it up as well as you can, so it will go 
down easy. We realize, gentlemen, the importance of your 
business. Not as much when we are here and well; not as 
much to-day as we do when we come closer to the ground, 
which covers us all. We realize that you can, as the good 
doctor has said, relieve pain. We realize it; we realize that 
you occupy responsible places in the community; we know 
it. We are glad to find in such responsible places men of 
high foreheads and large intelligence. W r e are glad that you 
realize the solemnity of the little package you send out now 
to the homes and children; that like the engineer that 
touches the throttle, when you hold in your hands the issues 
then of life and death, you are careful to save life and protect 
homes from accidents in mixing medicines. But I will not 
detain you. We bid you thrice welcome to all that our city 
affords. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 91 



WELL-BOUGHT GOODS. 



(Address to Retail Grocers.) 

In going over this country quite extensively during the 
last twelve years, and observing the business relations of 
merchants, I have found that retail grocers rarely fail and 
seldom make assignments. They generally own their stores 
and dwellings, bring up good families in comfort, educate 
their children, and quite often become well-to-do and some- 
times grow wealthy. With goods well bought, the right 
location, honest, fair dealing, and few bad debts, there is no 
need of failure in your business. You deal in something 
that the people must buy and are generally ready to pay for. 
It is in watching these three things that secures your success 
as grocers. If you have made a mistake in location, the 
sooner you change the better (after you are sure of it), for 
any amount of travel in the direction of Louisville will never 
bring you to California. You must start right and do right, 
and then there is no danger. 

The vital thing in retail business that I wish to impress 
early on your minds is the danger of the credit system. 
Smooth-tongued men will call and pay promptly; they will 
remind you that they pay cash, and see that you are made 
aware of it. The first and second time they pay promptly; 
then let a little run over; then pay that up to buy credit and 
confidence; then buy goods heavily — they slide into your 
credit; then slide out of your county- It's an old trick. 



92 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

You know it is done often. Too many such debts eat up 
the profits, use up your capital and destroy your margins. 
Generally speaking, goods sold to strangers on credit are 
worse than wholesaled. 

"Goods well bought are half sold," and men like Thurber, 
who lately retired with $2,000,000 from the largest grocery 
house in the world, believed and practiced this motto. Al- 
ways keeping the best and purest articles, always dealing 
squarely and honestly, he established a business that gave 
him a national reputation and a splendid fortune. In this 
connection let me say, avoid buying "shelf-keepers," ground 
goods, odd goods that may be and may never be called for; 
they fill up and become shelf-keepers, and never end in a 
profit to the owner. 

A word or two on the legal manner of charging. Men 
will drop in with some stranger and say, "He is all right," 
and away goes your goods. But this is not enough. It is 
all important to know he is right. The test of the matter 
is in whom you charge the item. If it is all right, charge 
it to the one who recommends, and tell him you are doing 
so. Unless you do so, the promise will not be binding. 
You cannot legally give credit to both. You must have 
authority, and at the exact time of giving the credit, you 
may, if told to, charge the bill to the one that vouched for 
the other. Be careful about this part, and also be careful 
to make all complaints about bad or imperfect goods within 
ten days after the purchase. It is an implied warranty in 
.all business that goods are sound and reasonably perfect, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 93 

but be diligent in opening up and demanding any lack of it 
in season. Don't wait till the bill is due, and then complain 
about it. That is like the man who married a good wife, 
and, after she grew old and gray, sent her back to her 
parents, with the words in white chalk on the back of her 
black dress, "Don't suit." With these precautions, you need 
not fail of success in business. You need never dream of 
failure. 

Your manager has kindly handed me a brief of the objects 
of your Union, as follows: 

1. Social Friendship. I like that. Life is short, busy, 
active. You will wake up some morning, not much beyond 
forty, and, startled as by the coming of some fast express, 
will come the fact that you are nearer the other end of life 
than the beginning. You will then think back, and wonder 
what you have most enjoyed; and it will not be alone the 
money made, but the good done your fellow-men. It will 
not be the monument in the cemetery, but the grander 
monument, like the great-hearted Bagley left us, a fountain 
of pure water for thirsty people. (Applause.) You may 
not all equal Bagley, but you can be kind and noble, oblig- 
ing and charitable. It may be the half-cord of wood, or 
the smaller gift that will bring you blessings. Everyone 
who loves you will be your customer. Men will go out of 
their way to trade with fair dealers. It will pay to be kind 
and social. 

2. It is a second object to stop wholesalers from retail- 
I need not add much to what Air.. 



94 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Mathewson has told you on this, but I will say it is in the 
power of organized dealers to do it. Once act together, and 
you can command it. If they deny your demands, treat 
them as the boy did the kicking mule, when he said: "I'll 
get even with him. I'll stop it out of his feed to-night: that's 
what I'll do." 

3. To cut off delinquent debtors and prevent adulterated 
goods, as another object, is excellent. I have already 
hinted at the first and may mention the last one. You have 
it in your power to expose buyers who beat their grocer 
and change residence by an early notice to your Union. 
Use that power, and you will do good by it. You have it 
in your power to buy good goods and none other. Simply 
say, Competition is so close to-day, we must buy customers 
by fine goods and none other. It is not enough to be a 
merchant; one must be up to the age and alive to progress. 

If possible, it is better to buy at home. There is no city 
better, cleaner, thriftier than Detroit — few, if any, growing 
faster. Detroit markets for Detroit should be your watch- 
word. Buy of your dealers and they become interested in 
your welfare. Runners who come from New York, Chi- 
cago and sister cities may urge you, but in such cases you 
buy too much sometimes, and have no chance to make 
changes, and they come on with less interest in your future, 
and may close in on you too suddenly. 

4. Selling by weight and trade arbitration seems to con- 
clude your objects. The arbitration is all important. It 
may sound odd for a lawyer to advise against suits, but I 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 95 

often do it. Enough will go to law that cannot be pre- 
vented. It is better to look trouble in the face manfully, 
and not write letters over the fence and quarrel with each 
other about trifles. Life is too short to wrangle in business. 
Time is too valuable. Too many go to law and lose by 
it. Honorable men can settle honorably, if they try. See 
that you are right as well as reasonable. 

Your objects are all laudable. You desire to succeed and 
do well by your Union. The power of combined force is 
marvelous. Col. Croften once said: "I can take a body of 
500 trained veterans, and subdue a whole country that act 
at random without leaders." The strength of your Union 
is in the ability to act as one man. You are united. Keep 
to your colors. Be courageous. Be diligent. Be earnest. 
Stand to the principles of your Union, and you will prosper 
as a body, and many of you may yet become wealthy and 
influential merchants. (Applause.) 



CHAPTER III. 



MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES, QUOTATIONS, 
ETC 

FRIENDSHIP— ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS— BOOKS AS 
FRIENDS— CHARACTER— ORATORY AND ORATORS- 
STARTING IN LAW-LAWYERS AS LEADERS— WEALTHY 
LAWYERS— TALKING TOO MUCH— ON HIS MERITS- 
REMEMBER LITTLE THINGS— LAWYERS' FORTUNES— 
THE BOY LAWYER— GREAT SPEECHES— LOG CABIN 
DAYS— A THRILLING SKETCH— IN AUSTRALL^— MONEY 
MAKING— GRAIN GAMBLING— LINCOLN'S ART IN 
COURT— DEFEND THE ACCUSED— MEN WE CROWN- 
IN THE SIGHT OF THE FATHERS— A SILVER DEBATE— 
DEPEW ON BONDS OF COMMERCE— THE TEACHER'S 
DEFENSE. 

FRIENDSHIP. 



A friend is a person who takes an interest in our welfare ; 
will not flatter us to our face; will defend our good name 
and our actions; who will keep our secrets, advance our 
interests, in all places, under all conditions, so long as they 
claim our friendship. 

To paint a small picture of friendship is to describe that 
link between kindred minds on some common thing, where 
the minds agree together, and usually pledge themselves, 
either by a bond of promise or an implied obligation, to 
stand by each other in the common object. It is a feeling 
not known to men of ordinary minds, a lofty sentiment. It 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 97 

embraces a love of justice, mercy and fidelity to each other; 
a devotion to duty, and a harmony of purpose, that will 
outlast all trifles of differences for the sake of one common 
good. The Spanish say of friendship: To keep with the 
good is to be one of them; to go with the bad is to soon be 
one of them. 

The Germans have a saying, more beautiful in their own 
language than in ours: "Mit dem hut in der hand geht 
man durch das ganze land," which with us is, "Wkh polite- 
ness, or with his hat in his hand, man succeeds in any coun- 
try." The English have a crystalized saying by Carlisle, 
that success in life in anything depends upon the number of 
persons that one can make himself agreeable to. 

All these are only the fringes of friendship ; a very reason- 
able friendship may exist between persons in many things 
the opposite of each other. A man may love his dog; a 
horse may follow his master; a white child may be greatly 
attached to an old colored nurse, and all these have in them 
many elements of friendship. 

Shakespeare has given us an instructive instance in the 
case of Timon of Athens, who was a rich lord, had plenty 
•of friends while his money lasted, who made lavish and 
costly banquets, with splendid dinners, and gave away 
plenty of money to men, who, in turn, played upon his 
credulity. If one chanced to give him a cane, he would 
pay back the gift with a carriage. If one sent him a dog, 
he would repay it with a horse. If one dedicated a book to 
his memory he would buy up the whole edition. 



98 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

But his means soon came to an end, and when his money 
ran out his head servant was sent out to borrow a little of 
his former friends. This was a sharp test of their friendship. 
His friend "A" said, "I am very sorry, but my present wants 
are enough to use up quite all the money I can raise." His 
friend "B" said, "Well, I thought as much. Timon has been 
living too fast." His friend "C" said, "It has come at last; 
just as I expected; he was too prodigal of his money." 

When Timon heard of it he felt greatly hurt; he called 
his servants together and made a great feast, and invited 
everybody, including his friends. 

As they came in one by one they spoke something like 
this : "We are glad to dine with our genial friend again ; we 
knew it was a joke; we knew our old friend Timon was well- 
to-do." Timon remained silent. At a given signal the 
covers were raised, and only hot water was seen in every 
dish. "Now," said Timon, "begone, begone, you false 
friends; flee out of my sight instantly," and he drove them 
away. He took to the woods, and lived like a hermit with 
his dogs. War came on, and Timon, who had been valiant 
in battle, was needed in Athens, but he would not go back. 
One day he found a vast deposit of gold and silver, and 
became very rich again, but even then he would not return, - 
though he could have returned in great splendor and been a 
ruler and prince in Athens; but he refused saying, "I will 
not return, for what is money without friendship?" 

Let us linger a moment on the theme that comes so close 
to our homes and our lives; let us hurry not away from it, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 99 

but go from it thoughtfully. The Chinese have a saying 
when parting from their friends: "Go away slowly when you 
must go — go away slowly." The Japanese say, when they 
separate, "If it must be so." The Germans say, "auf wieder- 
sehen," till we meet again ; and Confucius, the great Chinese 
teacher, said, "The archer who misses the target, turns to 
himself and not to another for the cause of his 
failure." So with our friends, and our friendly relations — 
the only possible failure, if failure it be, to win their respect 
must fall upon ourselves. 

Perhaps the most beautiful story of friendship of all was 
the story of Damon and Pythias. You remember it is in 
poem form, but to shorten it and get the meaning of it, the 
tyrant first says to Damon, ''What means this disguise, and 
the dagger that gleams in thy breast?" To which Damon 
answers, 'Twas to free this dear land from its chains. "Free 
the land, wretched fool; thou shalt die for thy pains." 

* * * I am ready to die — I ask not to live, 
Yet three days of respite, perhaps, thou wouldst give, 
For to-morrow my sister will wed; 

And 'twould damp all her joy were her brother not there. 
Then let me, I pray thee, to her nuptials repair, 
While a friend remains here in my stead. 
Then to Pythias he went and told him his case ; 
That true friend answered not, but with instant embrace 
Hurried forth to be bound in his stead. 

You remember on his return three days later, how he 
met the floods and robbers, and battled his way back, and at 
last arriving in sight of the scaffold, the poem concludes:. 



ioo SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

''When, hark! what a sound is muttered around, 

Saying, hold! it is I, it is Damon, for whom he was bound." 

How the King for once felt himself as he ought and com- 
manded that both to his side might be brought. 
How the King forgave them both on condition that they 
would make him one of their friends. 

You remember another instance of friendship. It is old, 
it is rare, it is beautiful; it is the little story in the Bible of 
Ruth, the gleaner, who, when asked by her mother to re- 
main at home while she went out into another country to get 
grain, the dutiful girl said, "Entreat me not to leave thee, 
nor cease from following after thee, for whither thou goest 
I will go, where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be 
my people, thy God shall be my God. Where thou livest, I 
will live. Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be 
buried." 

And so in friendship we must stand together, like Damon 
and Pythias, to the end of life, and not to the end of for- 
tune. 

I must conclude this with the words of an old Indian who 
before every battle, believing, as many Indians do, that the 
spirit of the slain will enter their spirit to make them 
stronger Indians, and that after every defeat a part of the 
spirit goes out of them until they are no longer big Indians. 
It was the custom of this Indian to walk out in front of his 
braves and, beating his brawny hand upon his manly breast, 
exclaim, "I know that I shall win this battle! I feel that I 
shall win this battle! It is burning in my body that I shall 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 101 

win this battle." And so, if united in life's battle, we may 
win it as the examples have shown ; and so if we wrong our 
friends and forfeit their friendship, we will lose, after all, in 
the battle of life, for in the language of Timon, "what is 
money without friendship." And if we live well, it may be 
said of us at last: 

"And I am glad that he has lived thus long, 

And glad that he has gone to his reward ; 

Nor deem that kindly nature did him wrong, 

Softly to disengage the vital cord. 

When his strong hand grew palsied, and his eye 

Dimmed with the frosts of years, it was his time to die." 



ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS. 



IT DEPENDS ON YOURSELF. 
Happiness is a rare study. A Boston editor sent out five 
thousand letters to learn of those who had lived past eighty 
years, as to what they attributed their long life and happi- 
ness. The answers from 3,500 New Englanders showed 
four main reasons: 

1. Out-door work and exercise. 

2. A happy marriage and a peaceful home. 

3. A life of hope and contentment. 

4. An interest in other people in the world around 
them. 



102 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

A bond of' sympathy unites all civilized nations together. 
Who can solve the mystery of right living? May it not be 
that we live with each other, when we think of each other? 
Whether an ocean or a continent divides us, a flash of 
thought knows no distance. The absent are nearer than we 
realize. As in modern times, even continents are but a 
few days from each other, so, in a broader sense, every 
living thing ever known, even but briefly, comes back to us 
at will, and vivid impressions of earnest lives are never 
separated. 

The sympathy of lives for each other creates their hap- 
piness. The willingness to work and do duty increases our 
usefulness. No careless work will answer. The demand 
of the age is earnest thought or work. We must plan and 
plan wisely. We must be in deep earnest, or we will lose 
all our advantages. 

In the great Roman play of Virginius, where the father 
seeks to rescue a little daughter, Virginia, that had been 
stolen from him, you remember the father says, as he sees 
he must lose his daughter: "Give me men and I will rescue 
her! Where are the men? Give me men, with hearts in 
their hands and I will rescue her ! The hand is no stronger 
than the heart! Give me men!" But there are no men, 
and he goes over to his tender little girl and talks with her 
a moment, and while talking with her he drives a dagger 
to her heart rather than that she should become the prey of 
an unworthy despot. Give me men in the churches; give 
me men in society; give me men in position; give me men 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 103 

and I will rescue the State; give me men and I will rescue 
the country. The world wants men. 

Alexander the Great, on seeing so many men were in 
training in the games, became jealous of them and said: "If 
there were princes in the ring as competitors, I would train 
with them myself." To-day the Alexanders are never so 
great that they fail to come into the arena and in the ring, 
and train with the people themselves. Alexander also 
wisely said : "I have noticed that the prizes are always given 
to those who enter the arena and run, and never to those 
who stand on the outside." Have you thought of it? The 
prizes of life in anything are given to those who enter into 
the arena and run, and never to those who stand on the 
outside. You must enter, young men and young women. 
Name me, if you please, one single, solitary great singer, 
great artist, great lawyer, great statesman, great minister, 
great merchant or great scientist — name me one anywhere 
in the known world that has ever failed long of a position 
in life. There is no such thing as failure to one who is 
qualified away above his fellows. There never was any such 
instance. Pick out a musician in your churches to-night 
with a superior, melodious voice that can capture an 
audience, and that musician's fortune is already made. 
Name me a lawyer to-day who stands above his fellows as 
a man, brilliant, honest and upright, able and learned and 
ready, and there is no such thing as failure to that lawyer. 
Name me a skilled mechanic like Edison, a scientist like 
Agassiz and there is no such thing as failure to such a man. 



104 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Well, this nation in the past, especially within the past few 
years, has been bowing down very low to money; and I ac- 
tually believe that rich men are no longer to be fashionable. 
Therefore, you that would take the prizes in the arena must 
enter in the arena, and not stand looking on the outer side. 
Money is going out of fashion. (Cheers and laughter.) I 
believe it to-night. I believe that the fashion of the coming 
ages will be brain power, nobility, talent, genius, energy, 
uprightness, love of duty. 

John B. Gough, the brilliant lecturer, brought before me, 
when a boy, the picture of the life of a temperate man. I 
had gone nine miles on horseback from my village home 
to Hillsdale College chapel to hear him, and at the close of 
the lecture men were touched and moved by the simple 
figure, the beauty, the grandeur, the sublimity he set of a 
temperate and upright life. But to-day we need men and 
women of more than temperate life. We need men and 
women of unselfish life. We need the life that comes out 
of self to pick up hundreds and bear them in our arms and 
encourage them, so that we shall not live alone for self. At 
the close of that brilliant lecture, the audience had not even 
applauded save by silence, and as the speaker took his seat, 
the people were loath to leave the room, such a hush fell 
over them - f men and women stood in their places, and silence 
became intense. No one dismissed us, but the chairman, 
rising slowly, waved his handkerchief and they went out as 
they would go from a funeral. The impress that meeting 
made upon my mind was that it pays to live an upright life ; 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 105 

that it pays to be manly every day of your life; that 
it pays to study; that it pays to think; that it pays to 
exert energy to help one another. It pays to think the intel- 
lectual aristocracy is the highest standard in the world. 

I remember reading, when a boy, a story of duty. It was 
the story of an old German sexton who had been placed in 
charge of a church in the Netherlands, and one day found 
it on fire. He had grown up with the church and he was 
then gray-headed and old. The church was of stone, but 
the steeple or belfry and the whole inner part was wood 
work. He seized a pail of water as he saw the flames break- 
ing out, and hurried up the steep stairs and worked up close 
where the fire was burning, and commenced throwing water 
to put it out, going a little higher, and a little higher yet, 
when suddenly the flames broke in below him, cutting off 
his retreat. He dropped the pail of water and looked down 
on the people below. The flames were lighting up his 
bright eyes ; the flames were licking up the skirts of his cloth- 
ing; the flames were burning in his hair; the flames were 
burning the man up, when suddenly, reaching his hand up- 
ward-, he grasped the bell, seizing it with his right hand, 
shook it and set the chimes in motion : "Praise ye the Lord,"" 
and once more he pulled it: "Praise ye the Lord, praise ye 
the Lord," and dropped to death at the end of his duty. 



io6 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



BOOKS AS FRIENDS. 



"The fairest fruit earth ever held up to its Maker is man." 

George Eliot says: "Some thoughts pass by us as the 
winds and leave no trace; others touch us with soft hands, 
breathe upon us with sweet breath, move us like music 
■and thrill us like a passion.'' 

Lowell says: 

"Life is a leaf of paper white, 
On which each one may write his line or two 
And then comes night." 
Whittier tells : 

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are 

It might have been." 

Longfellow: 

"There is no death, 

The stars go out and shine upon another shore." 

Books tell us if the good love us, we need not fear, the 
hatred of the bad. 

Confucius says: "The archer who misses the target turns 
to himself and not to another for the cause of his failure.'' 

To know all men is knowledge. To love all men is be- 
nevolence. 

It is the beginning that costs. The first step over, all is 
easy in anything. 

Keep with the good and you will soon be one of them. 
But go with the bad and you will be one of them. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 107 

In all our acts we must run alone. Friends follow us to 
the arena, but the race and the battle of life is our own. 

Education makes a man fit company for himself. 

The Miser's Hand is a most beautiful illustration of fin- 
ished work. Firnaz's The Genius of Pleasure is another. 

Books teach that to "Employ only the upright, and all 
things will be upright." 

"If good men governed a hundred years, there would be 
no need of capital punishment." 

Shakespeare's Timon of Athens is a lecture by itself: 
What is money without friends? 

Mensus says: "Learning without thought is labor lost. 
Reflect and gain wisdom by what you see and read." 

Riches and honor all men desire; poverty and distress 
all dislike. You can be fitted for the one or descend to the 
other. 

The wise love learning; they do not transfer their anger 
nor repeat a fault. 

If one lose his uprightness, his escape from death is his 
good fortune. 

I would not have you cross a river without a boat, or 
attack a tiger unarmed; nor can you win the battle of life 
without weapons. 

The virtuous are free from anxiety; the wise free from 
doubt; the upright free from fear and care. 

Goethe tells us that a man's first duty is to select a busi- 
ness suited to his capacity. If he discovers his vocation, to 
pursue it steadily, and thus make his life of greatest use and 



108 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 

service to the world and produce to himself the utmost 
harmony — concentrated activity being of the greatest 
moment. There is nothing worth thinking, adds the same 
wise author, but has been thought before, and we may 
merely think it over again. 

The best education is in the discovery of the best and 
wisest thoughts. The effect of our thoughts is left to our- 
selves. He bids us, above all, avail ourselves of the present, 
rather than bewail our fate or fortune; to do what we can 
to make our memory lasting. That mind, he adds, is in 
keeping with a practical object whose task lies nearest and 
is worthiest to be done; for by the time one has taken note 
of everything he has lost himself. Character, in matters 
great and small, is in steadily pursuing the things which he 
feels himself capable. Duty is the goal of ambition. A 
man is happy when he delights in. the good will of others, 
and loves what he commands himself to do. 

He urges us to cull the wise thoughts of good books and 
master them, and thus be in touch with the wisdom of the 
whole world. It will give an amazing insight into lives and 
affairs and enlarge both our sympathy and influence. A 
mind so stored with wisdom need only speak to do good 
and open rich stores of knowledge. It is worth a life of 
enthusiasm to gather the flowers of learning in the store 
house of memory. As books are the souls of a dwelling, 
so thoughts are the essence of rare books. They are only 
valuable when we make their contents useful. They are a 
mirror in which we see men, and events, sorrow and happi- 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 109 

ness. Thoughts/ like stars, will light our pathway when the 
sun of prosperity may be clouded. In whatever position we 
are, great thoughts will be loving companions. To be 
broad and fertile, to be keen and appreciative, we must cul- 
tivate a knowledge of men with our books. Both travel 
and lectures will aid us, but thought and reflection on what 
we read, hear and know, are above all to be treasured as 
the best secrets of the universe. It is not language alone, 
but the mind embodied in it that is enjoyable. 

Reading ought to mean understanding; writing ought to 
mean knowing something. To desire a thing is to take it; 
to demand it is to get it; to get it is to enjoy it in literature. 

A man's knowledge determines what he will do: what 
station he will occupy. 

The same author adds: "For a man of the world, a col- 
lection of anecdotes and maxims is of the greatest value, 
if he knows how to intersperse one in his conversation at 
fitting moments, and remember the other when a case 
arises for their application." 

As architecture has been well called frozen music, so the 
style of one's thoughts and sayings may be models built 
from the material and conceptions of the proportions that 
our minds are supplied with. 

In his unique simplicity, wit and brevity, Lincoln led all 
speakers of his time. It was owing, no doubt, to three 
things: (1) An intense nature, born of a hungry appetite 
for wisdom in books — he read Shakespeare, the Bible, Bun- 
yan, Burns and Blackstone, with thought and reflection; 



no SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

(2) To his knowledge of pioneer life and simple application 
of little things to large ones — his windows of thought were 
of the clearest polish, and (3) To his frankness and liberal- 
ity in giving out what he knew and believed, so that every 
day was a published volume of his life with his hopes and 
feelings blending in the painting as he passed along. 

''What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason, how 
infinite in faculties; in form and moving how express and 
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how 
like a God !» 



CHARACTER. 



(Extract from Bishop Newman's Address.) 

The true basis of all liberty is law. Absolute liberty is im- 
possible. A restraining influence is essential to growth, to 
security, to character. Without the limit of law, the owner- 
ship of property would cease, and men would contend for 
their share as the wolves divide their substance. Without 
the restraint of law, the trees might grow and 
reach above the sky; without the limit of law, 
the ambition of man, with his present environ- 
ments, would never cease, till he managed the earth 
and stood above the sun; without the limit of law, the sun 
and stars and elements on high, would clash and melt and 
roll to chaos in a maddened mass. The law that makes us. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. iil 

keeps us, rules us, gives us scope for effort and reward, is,, 
after all, the better law for everyone. It leaves man within 
its limits to work out mighty plans and accomplish great re- 
sults. 

5fc >H ^ 5jC 

The characters in history that stand out alone have inheri- 
ted qualities that were bred in their nature : Caesar to rule,. 
Antony to be moved by impulse, Gibbon to write and rea- 
son, Napoleon for war, Howard to philanthropy, Addison 
to refinement, Washington to freedom, but each worked out 
his own destiny; and when we get down to the bed-rock of 
character, it demands individualism. It's not enough that 
others succeed or have succeeded, the condition is a per- 
sonal one. He that is wise is wise for himself. He that fails 
must turn to himself and not to another for the cause of his. 
failure. 

* ^ >£ ^ 

After citing many characters, Caesar, Anthony, Gibbons,, 
Howard, and Voltaire, Addison and Washington, the 
speaker turned his argument toward the general conception 
of Heaven, which he said, "would not be heaven alone to 
me, if all the streets were gold, the gates were pearl, the 
leaves of silver, and the walls of jasper. It's not enough 
to say of it that the good of all ages are massed together 
there; that statesmen and scholars and wise men are there; 
they will not make it heaven to me. It's not enough, that 
I shall meet the friends that have gone before me there; they 



112 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

cannot create a heaven for me; it's not enough that waiting 
angels may attend the grounds to show us where our loved 
ones are. It's not enough that just within the gates a fond 
mother may be stationed ready to stretch forth her hands of 
welcome there — even that mother has not the power to make 
it a heaven for me — for heaven must be born within, and 
must become a part of self to be enjoyed." 



All character needs stability. 

You remember in that beautiful epic — the Book of Job, 
how the man of flocks and hefds and lands and family and 
power, later became poor, and lost his property and lost his 
health; how the black leprosy ate into his burning flesh, and 
yet he held his character; how, when his family turned 
against him and his own wife urged him to take his life — to 
curse God and die — yet he was firm and said, "I will wait 
for the fullness of my time; all the while my breath is in me 
my tongue shall not utter deceit, 'till I die I will not remove 
mine integrity from me." 



ORATORS AND ORATORY 



(From Donovan's Trial Practice.) 

The intense aversion that all good lawyers have for affec- 
tation, is, in a measure, a hinderance to the study of oratory. 
Many fear that they may acquire a stilted habit of delivery. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 113 

But surprising as it may sound, the one thing most neg- 
lected in law schools, is the subject of delivery, or the art of 
speaking in a tone and manner easily understood, by a court 
and jury. 

The high pitched key of loud talkers, and inaudible voices 
of others, fall on the ear like the prattle of the street vendor, 
and never leave the listener room to comprehend the sub- 
ject, if he cared to follow the reasoner. Men are not moved 
and converted by such repulsive utterances. The music of 
modulation is a great essential in speaking, as men never 
quarrel in the hearing of sweet sounds, so with pleasing 
speeches, they steal in on the senses, and capture the judg- 
ment. They compel attention. They win juries, command 
verdicts, and secure large retainers. 

Such is the power of eloquent speech, that trained and 
modulated, with some apt words to utter, it will quell a mob, 
nerve an army, rouse an audience, move an assemblage, and 
often change the destiny of nations. The same words 
spoken without a forcible and apt delivery, Avould be lost on 
the listener, or fall, as Gough puts it, "like stones in the mud, 
to sink and disappear forever." 

No man ever believed more in the power of well chosen 
sentences, and their right delivery, than Webster, the great- 
est model of American advocates. He was often absorbed 
in the study of forcible sayings for days before his greatest 
speeches, and never made an important effort unprepared. 
He would commit to memory, and carry illustrations, ten. 
and fifteen years before using them. He was indebted to> 



ii 4 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Dryden for his "raising mortals to the skies, and drawing 
angels down." He owed much to Scott for his "sea of up- 
turned faces;" much to the Scriptures for his sublimity, and 
many strong sentences to Shakespeare, but he owed most of 
all to his wonderful delivery. In reply to Hayne he drew 
on all his resources. 

At the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument, the crowd 
pressed hard upon the speaker's platform. The police were 
powerless to restrain them. In vain the master of ceremon- 
ies urged them to be quiet. It was a supreme moment just 
before Mr. Webster was to be introduced as the orator. All 
were anxious to hear his earliest utterances, but confusion 
became intense. The chairman begged Mr. Webster to say 
a few words to restore order. The great man came forward 
in his majestic way, and said: "Gentlemen, you must fall 
back!" "Mr. Webster, it is impossible!" "It is impossi- 
ble !" shouted many voices in unison. Raising his arm and 
his voice, as his burning eyes flashed over the excited mul- 
titude before him, he said with Websterian emphasis: "Gen- 
tlemen, nothing is impossible to Americans at Bunker Hill ! 
Fall back!" A great shout rang through the audience as 
they surged back like the waves of the ocean. This was 
what Webster would call something higher than eloquence 
— action, noble, sublime, God-like action. 

Carlyle says: "Let him who would be moved to convince 
others, be first moved to convince himself," and adds : "The 
race of life has become intense; the runners are treading on 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 115 

each other's heels ; woe be to him who stops to tie his shoe- 
strings." 

While we may abhor the mimic style of elocution as some- 
times taught by ranting readers of worn-out themes, a well 
delivered speech, or play, is a rare pleasure; and there is no 
greater luxury on earth, than that experienced by accom- 
plished singers, speakers and actors before an appreciative 
audience. 

To acquire that ease and pleasant delivery, and know T its 
value, is a work of time and patience ; but I prefer to speak 
of it through men of larger experience, whose apt words are 
quoted, instead of personal counsel. These masters of their 
science speak with unquestioned authority. It goes without 
saying that American statesmen, notably the late President 
Garfield, first acquired eminence by their oratory. 

Cicero says : "Delivery has the sole and supreme power 
of oratory. Without it a speaker of the greatest mental 
power cannot be held in any esteem, while with it, one 
of moderate ability may surpass those of the greatest talent." 
Quintillion says: "Indifferent discourse well delivered, is 
better received by a popular audience, than a good discourse 
badly delivered. It is not so important what our thoughts 
are, as in what manner they are delivered, since those whom 
we address are moved only as they hear." Humboldt says : 
"The essence of language lies in the living utterance. It is 
only by the spoken word that the speaker breathes his soul 
into the souls of his hearers." Sargent S. Prentiss, of whom 
S. S. Cox says : "No man, south or north, ever left a finer 



u6 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 

reputation for eloquence," in a letter to his brother, dated 
Vicksburg, August 9, 1833, writes: "Let me particularly 
recommend to you to cultivate as much as possible your 
powers of elocution. This attainment is to every man of the 
utmost importance. It is no less than the power of using 
his other attainments, for what advantage is information un- 
less one is allowed to convey it, and show the world one pos- 
sesses it. Indeed, my observation of mankind has con- 
vinced me that success in life depends not upon the quantity 
of knowledge a man possesses, as upon the skill and facility 
with which he is able to bring it to bear upon the affairs in 
which he may be engaged. 

"This is particularly true with great men. Their great- 
ness consists less in the extent of their knowledge, than in the 
way in which they use it. There are hundreds, perhaps 
thousands, of men in the United States who exceed Henry 
Clay in information on all subjects, but his superiority con- 
sists in the power and adroitness with which he uses his in- 
formation. 

"I would again press, before any other acquisition, neces- 
sity of training. What young man, having merely a fond- 
ness for painting, and a corresponding desire to paint, 
would dare to take up brush and palette, and expect his first 
ignorant daubs to be accepted by the academy? What 
young woman without training would dare sing before a 
public audience of cultivated people? What merely sub- 
architect would expect to have his random plans accepted, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 117 

even for a State capitol ? Everyone understands the neces- 
sity of thorough technical education in these arts ; but when 
you come to elocution, the highest of all arts, there is a gen- 
eral impression that the mere desire to do something indi- 
cates the power to do it. Art in elocution is the purest 
appropriate expression of thought, therefore no man who 
desires to use his mind can afford to dispense with the knowl- 
edge of its simplest and most apparent laws. And there 
can be no great success without severe technical study." 

Professor Wm. Matthews says : "Let men once learn and 
deeply feel that no man ever has been, or ever can be, a 
true orator without a long and severe apprenticeship to the 
art; that it not only demands constant, daily practice in 
speaking and reading, but a sedulous culture of the memory, 
the judgment, and the fancy — a ceaseless storing of the cells 
of the brain with the treasures of literature, history, and 
science for its use, and they will shrink from haranguing 
their fellow-men, except after a careful training and the most 
conscientious preparation." 

Henry Ward Beecher says: "While progress has been 
made, and is making, in the training of men for public 
speaking, I think I might say that relative to the exertions 
that are put forth in other departments of education, this 
subject is behind all others. Training in this "department 
is the great want of our day, for we are living in a land 
whose genius, whose history, whose institutions, whose peo- 
ple, demand oratory. I advocate, therefore, in its full 



n8 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

extent, and for every reason of humanity, of patriotism, and 
of religion, a more thorough culture of oratory. 

"Now in regard to the training of the orator, it should be 
a part and parcel of the school. The first work is to teach 
a man's body to serve his soul. So long as men are in the 
body they need the body; and one of the very first steps in 
oratory is that which trains the body to be the welcome and 
glad servant of the soul. Grace, posture, force of manner, 
the training of the eye that it may look at men, and pierce 
them, and smile upon them, and bring summer to them, and 
call down storms and winter upon them; the development 
of the hand, that it may wield the scepter or beckon with 
sweet persuasion ; these themes belong to man. And, among 
other things, the voice — perhaps the most important of all, 
and the least cultured. 

''How many men are there who can speak from day to 
day, one hour, two hours, three hours, without exhaustion 
and without hoarseness? But it is in the power of the vocal 
organs, and of the ordinary vocal organs, to do this. What 
multitudes of men there are who weary themselves out be- 
cause they put their voice on a hard run at the top of its 
compass, and there is no relief to them, and none unfortu- 
nately to the audience. But the voice is like an orchestra. 
It ranges high up and can shriek betimes like the scream of 
an eagle ; or it is low as the lion's tone ; and at every inter- 
mediate point is some peculiar quality. It has in it the 
mother's whisper and the father's command. It has in it 
warning and alarm. It has in it sweetness. It is full 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 119 

of mirth and full of gayety. It glitters though it is 
not seen with all its sparkling fancies. It ranges high, 
intermediate, or low, in obedience to the will, uncon- 
scious to him who uses it; and men listen through the 
long hour wondering that it is so short, and quite unaware 
that they have been bewitched out of their weariness by the 
charm of a voice, not artificial, but by assiduous training 
made to be his second nature. Such a voice answers to the 
soul, and it is its beating. 

" 'But,' it is said, 'does not the voice come by nature?' 
Yes; but is there anything that 'comes by nature' that stays 
as it comes if it is worthily handled? There is no one thing 
in man that he has in perfection till he has it by culture. 
We know that in respect to everything but the voice. Is not 
the ear trained to hearing? Is not the eye trained to seeing? 
Is a man because he has learned a trade, and was not born 
with it, less a man? Is the school of human training to be 
disdained when by it we are rendered more useful to our fel- 
low-men? 

"But it is said that this culture is artificial; that it is sim- 
ply ornamentation. Ah ! that is not because there has been 
so much of it, but because there has been so little of it. If 
a man were to begin, as he should, early: or if, beginning 
late, he were to address himself assiduously to it, then the 
graces of speech, the graces of oratory, would be to him 
what all learning must be before it is perfect, namely — spon- 
taneous. If he were to be trained earlier, then his training 
would not be called the science of ostentation or acting. 



120 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Not until human nature is other than it is will the function 
of the living voice, the greatest force on earth among men, 
cease." 

It sounds so old, and is so true, to say of the first of ora- 
tors that he spent years in severe training; that he endured 
torture, and regarded the art as a pleasant task, and a val- 
uable science, and succeeded in overcoming deformity of 
voice and body, and won at last the crown of gold and last- 
ing fame as a reward for his energy. It sounds so very 
strange to speak of Clay as an ardent follower of this Gre- 
cian master, and Marshall as another, and Prentiss as an- 
other, each almost their master's equal, but their brilliancy 
as orators rewarded their years of training. And to-day, in 
the presence of Booth, who brings all nations at his feet, by 
purity of voice and grace of action, there are men enough 
to ridicule attempts to cultivate the finer qualities of delivery. 

Men are not wanting who see in the scholarly language 
and majestic delivery of Conkling — one with mind and body 
most wonderfully developed — what they please to term too 
much of the imperial for an American. But what if it be 
imperial, and is really finished? Is not the body a part of 
the Creator's stamp, and the soul within it simply living up 
to its possibilities? 

Men are not at all of an equal mould. They are not 
even created equal. Some are weak, and others strong; 
some are large, and others little; some are students, and 
others idlers; some look over the stars to other worlds, and 
others see but a single hamlet and that imperfectly. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 121 

That an orator like Butler should employ the strong and 
logical, while one like Cox reasons through his wit, and 
another like Matthews commands men by his dignity and 
eloquence, and many more possess but a tithe of their ac- 
quirements and succeed, is only an argument by contrast, 
ior Butler, Cox and Matthews, each employ their best 
forces, and forces not untrained or neglected. 

I sometimes wish that I could paint the real picture of 
a trained orator like Beach, as I heard him in the Brinkley 
case; a likeness of his flashing eye, his commanding form, 
and features all ablaze with eloquent looks, and voice of 
wonderful melody; or tell of Choate's swift flights of fancy; 
■of Everett's rhythmical sentences; of Matthews in his 
strongest power, or Storrs in some closing appeal; where 
the form surges and trembles with thoughts too fast for 
utterance, but these men must be seen to be appreciated, 
and heard to be understood. 

In a country where so much is demanded of orators, 
where place and power often comes to the eloquent and 
gifted, enough is left for the highest order of oratory and 
the finest finished speeches; no one need despair of a lack 
of present opportunity, but all should be ready to embrace 
their opportunity when it offers, for "There is a tide in the 
affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune." 



122 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

STARTING IN LAW. 



Training, courage, patience and aptness for the business 
are the essential elements of success in law practice. If one 
has not discernment enough to know how well he can fill 
these requirements it is better to wait awhile, or learn from 
another what is lacking. 

With a thorough training, courage should follow easily, 
for no one is strong without knowing it, and strength comes 
of confidence in ability to do what we undertake. Then 
with energy and work well done, new cases will follow, and 
business will grow like a tree, with new branches from every 
limb. If one is willing to wait the growth of an orchard, 
the development of an enterprise, or any ordinary matter 
that requires time, he should be willing to take law business 
as it comes — thankfully. Actors are willing to play sub- 
ordinate parts many years in starting till suddenly called 
in to replace their seniors, when they often display their 
earliest talents by accident. 

Lawyers are watched in court trials very much like actors 
in a play, and, indeed, many are superior to actors, and the 
real tragedies shown to juries are superior to the imitations 
of the mimic stage. A few well cut knots of controversy, 
a few well turned periods of argument, a clear insight into 
the puzzling problems will soon place a lawyer in his proper 
rank before any community. Learning, language, manner, 
familiarity with facts, and ingenuous handling of half-a- 
dozen witnesses will do the work. The best talent of a 






SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 123 

lawyer is common sense — a basis to which all cases finally 
must come before the last court leaves them. What is good 
sense is always good law, and counsel who act and advise 
on this principle must succeed in keeping their clients out 
of petty litigation, which is invaluable. 

The next best gift is foresight — the gift of telling how 
reasonable men will judge of a contract or controversy — 
the ability to frame a correct theory of a defense or prose- 
cution. Without this intuitive knowledge few can reach 
the right beginning in practice. Tact is born with a lawyer. 
If not, he was born for another calling. And what is finer 
than rare tact? 

The third gift is clearness. Things that come clearly to 
a teacher can be as clearly explained, but we never know 
well what we cannot tell to others. The very fact that it is 
not clear to the speaker, renders the listener all the more- 
confused. Some are so gifted in clearness that they send, 
as it were, a ray of electric light through their trials, and 
satisfy court, jury and client of the certainty of their posi- 
tions. Memory goes to make up clearness. So many 
details are to be kept track of that memory is a rich gift in 
trials, and one that cannot be over cultivated. It grows by 
use, and strengthens by practice. With all eyes on the 
actor, his lines are important. Neither wit, grace nor ap- 
pearance can replace matter and memory of the points in 
contest. As the actor wins a recall, so must the lawyer by 
influence on all in hearing. His form, manner, voice, mat- 
ter and ingenuity, each form a part, and aid in victory. 



524 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

AN INSTANCE. 

In a Kentucky murder case great excitement prevailed, 
and hundreds of armed men thronged around the counsel. 
Judge Curtis defended; he felt the sentiment of conviction 
in the air. The danger of lynching was not trifling. With 
subdued tones and careful diction, he opened in an eloquent 
tribute to the character of women, for charity, long suffer- 
ing, love and mercy. Tears fell freely, for on that ground 
no one disputed the speaker. The court was hushed and 
silent, till snow flakes could have been almost heard to fall. 
The crowded house grew to a house of admirers of the 
modest beauty of statement, as well as of the doctrine taught. 
All eyes met the speaker. He stood in the crowded court 
room like an athlete in an amphitheater. His danger 'n- 
-creased when the second passage was reached, where his 
client had been berated for acts of conduct in his early love, 
and a fair chance came for a strong turn on his adversary. 
The speaker wisely foresaw two answers, the bitter and 
the sweet; he chose the latter; he regretted that his noble 
brother should so far forget his high calling as to make 
sport of the early affections of his client. True, he stood 
solitary and alone, a childless man, and when he died it 
would be the last of his line. True, he had years before 
met and won a fair Kentucky lady, and but for her parents' 
wishes, they would have been united, and great God! said 
the speaker, can it be that to please a miscellaneous audi- 
ence, this holiest of earthly affections is to be held up to 
scorn and ridicule! In a State of chivalry and bravery like 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 125, 

Kentucky, can it enter into the heart of a man humane, to 
make sport of the holiest sympathy of the human soul! 

The ice melted, the audience were his. The influence of 
courtesy and nature was sublime. The defendant's life 
saved by it. This silent influence that brings out a recall, a 
half cheer, a sentiment of belief in the audience is, after all, 
the art of oratory. It conciliates, captures, convinces, wins 
and controls the judgment of a jury. It is superior to ques- 
tioning and brow-beating bad witnesses, and, coming from 
one of known integrity and sincerity, it weighs with a court 
and an audience. Let it be practiced by all laudable 
means at command. Surely it is more pleasing to a jury 
to do as Judge Perrin always advised: treat opposing state- 
ments as possible mistakes, and seek to show which side 
is mistaken. Juries had much rather hear this argument 
than a personal wrangle and a bitter controversy. 



LAWYERS AS LEADERS. 



The leaders in a general assemblage of men, suddenly 
summoned together to decide almost any question of public- 
interest, will be composed largely of lawyers. The Parlia- 
ment of Europe, the Congress and Senate of the United 
States, and each of the several State governments of the 
nation, draw their rules and wisdom in general from legal 



126 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

advisors. This is true of banks, corporations and com- 
panies of large moneyed interests. 

Where careless contracts might easily involve houses 
in ruin, or sensible advice could steer their course 
so safely that accidents need never impair the capital, or 
losses invade their private fortunes, considering the large 
sums spent in litigation, the time, anxiety and prospects of 
defeat for want of safe counsel, how strange it seems that 
more reliance is not placed on men whose business calls 
their attention to legislative enactments and the precedents 
of court decisions. 

With the vast responsibility before them, with the daily 
prospect of being questioned on State, municipal and busi- 
ness affairs, with the thought that on the answer given may 
depend the success of him who counsels wisely, is it unrea- 
sonable to ask trial lawyers to be ready and well read on the 
affairs of the world? Would you ask a description of fron- 
tier life or far away customs, speak with one who has tasted 
the hardships of the former, and witnessed the workings 
of the latter. 

Lawyers are often chosen for age and presumed wisdom 
whose learning is inapt and meaningless as the limited ob- 
servation of their plodding lives would mould and make it. 
Doctors, on the other hand, are more wisely selected from 
some known specialty wherein they excel and cure their 
patients. Lawyers ought to be well read in matters outside 
of their profession. Read in history, romance, Scripture 
and human nature. History will be dense with examples 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 127 

of righted wrongs through courts and laws and regulations. 
The pages of history are full of ripe experiences of heroic 
lives and eloquent appeals for liberty written all over in 
italics of long suffering men finally triumphant. 

Romances are drawn from mysteries in courts, over wills 
or marriages, about characters that live and have their being 
very often in the commonest affairs of business. The moral 
of the author, if he be one of worthy fame, will add interest 
to tradition, and weave in the rarest touches of pathetic 
incident and ingenious releases. The lesson of "put your- 
self in his place," intensified by Reade, the character pictures 
of Dickens, and historical sketches of Irving and Cooper, 
are all full of wisdom and beauty; to neglect them is to 
omit such a record of heart histories that no ripe scholar 
can afford to ignore, even if saved for a fund of illustration. 
It may be no wiser to speak of a matter as true in history, 
than of something that happened yesterday, but the sanction 
of age adds authority to enforce attention. 

The study of the Scriptures has ever been a means of 
strength in criminal advocacy. Webster, Ryan, Carpenter, 
Crittenden, Voorhees, Graham and Van Buren all reasoned 
through Scripture characters, and so full is the confidence 
of a jury in the truthfulness of Bible sayings, that they lodge 
in the mind and refuse to be removed by argument while 
hundreds believe that the Proverbs of Solomon are the 
sanctifications of common sense. 

But what lawyers most need is directness of purpose. 
Genius is never so much lacking as application. The most 



128 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

brilliant of the bar often take to drink and grow lower and 
lower year by year, till they end in the mad-house, the alms- 
house or the gutter, and lawyers more than others need to 
control their appetites. Excessive drink is the temptation 
before a speech to make it fervid, and it generally makes 
it flat or silly; and the temptation after the speech to make 
up for the waste or over-exertion, when rest is the real thing 
needed. I often think that race horses are far better cared 
for after a contest, than lawyers after an exhaustive argu- 
ment. But judgment dictates that quiet and rest is better 
than any form of stimulants. 

The ambition of all lawyers is to speak well, and to such 
the words of Fowler should be engraved upon their memory, 
"The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men," 
to which may be well added, the best teachers of good 
speaking, are the lives and sayings of good speakers inter- 
woven with intense practice. 

Henry Clay attributed his success in speaking to his early 
practice of committing speeches, and debating. Webster 
was a great student of oratory, and O'Connell believed that 
a good speech is a good thing, but the verdict is the thing. 
Gladstone is the only man in Parliament who speaks always 
in italics, and he is full of maxims. 

While the best of teachers may fail with a dull student, 
one born with eloquent tendencies, with heaven's great gift 
of genius, and a heart full of the subject, will need no 
rhetoric in words, but earnestness; and probably no quality 
can better aid a lawyer in his road to victory than is 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 129 

expressed in the simplest sentences. The statement of an 
event told in the tone and words as it happened, in a well 
modulated delivery, will best describe even the most terrible 
tragedy. The events in the Bible are all given in this 
manner. 

No amount of economy on a meager income will ever 
bring riches. It is the proportion of money spent to money 
earned that regulates a fortune, so that to be rich in infor- 
mation, to be wise in knowledge of books one must be 
industrious, be he ever so careful, and still if unwise, how 
can he impart wise counsel? The field is a large one, the 
work exacting. A trial on patience, integrity and vital 
energy, bringing early silver of locks and furrows of care 
in its busy energy, where the wheels of life run rapidly, and 
some day the engine stops from lack of propelling power. 
But of all men lawyers live long, and see much of life's mix- 
tures. 

As success in racing requires training, so progress at the 
bar "is marked by aptness in references selected, in clearness 
of principles and reasons given, and fullness of the subject 
at hand, so that industry is beyond all natural requirements 
in the conduct of difficult cases. "I never realized what 
labor was," said Shaffer, "until they attempted to baffle me 
in the poisoning case." "When I had been three days 
under ground, and measured every vein, and studied it like 
a miner, I knew I was right in my position," said Van 
Arman, of his Ohio coal case. 



i 3 o SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

And what other rule can be given that will increase one's 
practice and income? This is it, and the last one: Kind- 
ness. The success of a man in business depends upon the 
number that he can make himself agreeable to. His cus- 
tomers come out of their way to deal with him. His 
integrity being presumed, and honesty unquestioned, and 
industry conceded, even then he may be a bear in appear- 
ance or actions. If he is, he is sure to be avoided. 

Much in law comes to the courteous and deserving. Xo 
man knows when he passes a little shop with a key hung 
out as a sign, that he may ever need to call there, but the 
first broken lock reminds him of its location. No one 
knows that all around him may be men and women of 
peaceful habits, utterly unknown to courts and lawsuits, 
whose friends may be deeply involved in trouble, and the 
sunny smile or kindly tone accompanied by other essentials, 
may have left an impression deep and lasting on one who 
shall send the lawyer his best client, all through some act of 
kindness. 

If we knew much depended on good will in law business, 
we would all practice courtesy. Often in his earliest cases 
will counsel be tempted into severe language. He may be 
overfull of prejudice from his own client's story. Most 
likely he has had the enemy pictured as a brute, and the 
opposing counsel seems a wretch to contend with such * 
rights as his client seems to possess, but time will change 
this materially. It will be better by and by to avoid per- 
sonal offense, even to defendant. The bone of contention 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 131 

has doubtless been magnified. The opponent has many- 
equities that can be fairly conceded, and far wiser is he who 
oils the ruffled feathers by kind words, and makes an early 
settlement possible. 

With a wise enthusiasm and honest purpose, and a 
thorough skill and ripe knowledge of facts and principles, 
kindness will win all hearts and many verdicts. And in a 
calling so high, great and noble ; so honored by the lives of 
statesmen and orators of the past; honored by being the 
body of followers whose laws govern humanity; honored 
by having framed great constitutions, systems of govern- 
ment, and national settlements that have saved the lives of 
whole nations, and systems of finance, trade protection and 
international commerce; with all of them to remind us, 
and inspire us, how small, and low, and mean, seems a little 
quarrel, and how great and grand are wisdom, honesty and 
nobility! to acquire which, we must be diligent and 
genial, with purity of purpose and charity in practice, so 
that when death, the great reconciler, is come — to divide us 
— it is never our tenderness, but our severity that we repent 
of. Let us talk, act and live in friendship, but reason in 
italics. Let us live, and do our duty, but forgive our 
enemies in whispers, where the "soft answer turneth away 
wrath, and grievous words stir up anger." 



132 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

WEALTHY LAWYERS. 



The practice of law is not always remunerative. Many 
an advocate turns before he reaches success to other and 
more profitable employment. The cost of books, offices 
and travel, the delay of trials and worry in weary waiting 
comes to most men as a discouragement. 

Men wait for a lawyer's success, as they do for an actor's 
celebrity. They dislike to advance much on the great un- 
known. This is a terrible blunder of men who need legal 
talent If one is apt, keen and alert in his profession, and 
has but little practice, he is the very one who will spend 
days over a question that older attorneys would be unable 
to devote a good hour's study to investigate. The cheapest 
talent is the medium priced and rather younger classed 
lawyers; men who have reputations to win, and need to be 
diligent. 

As new houses put out many goods at small profits, and 
old ones rest on their reputation, so lawyers are full of rare 
service at low pay when they start in practice. 

I have seldom known very rich lawyers to be very anxious 
to try knotty cases. They prefer ease in practice. A man 
worth many millions that has tried all classes says: "Give 
me a poor lawyer, not so poor as to be needy, but give me 
one who wants reputation and will earn it." Give me 
young talent like new buggies, fresh horses and new houses; 
the forenoon chance is always the best. When one is rich 
and able to rest, why should he kill himself with over work 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 133 

and hard cases? The young are the burden bearers of 
business generally, and no less in law than in merchandise. 
It is reserved for the poor men to do the fine work, study 
and invent machinery, improve on the old methods and 
take the long steps forward, and no one need fear that 
poverty will forever keep him under in practice. 

It is a mistake to regret a humble birth, or envy the rich 
practitioner. It takes no genius or tact to be born rich, 
but, as Ingersoll well says, "the honor of the thing is in im- 
proving on the common stock — doing, and being, a little 
better than our ancestors." It is not what one's position 
may have been, or what his parents may have been, or how 
he attained his rank at the bar, but what he is, and how well 
he can maintain his position, that tells in practice. The 
genius that counts his fingers till he learns the rules more 
clearly, is none the less a genius. The boy lawyer with 
brains and grit who struggles with his superiors and suc- 
ceeds, is more deserving than the senior of name, character 
and standing. Time evens such things nicely in the long 
run, and rich, gray-haired men need never be envied by the 
young and ambitious, for few lawyers are wealthy under 
fifty who make their money in practice. 



134 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

TALKING TOO MUCH. 



"Pleasant words are sweet to the soul." 
Aaron Burr made a rule of thirty minutes speeches. That 
is a little too short for most men to conclude their stating 
portions of an argument. But Burr always commenced in 
the middle, and cut both ways, with vivid intensity he 
reached the vital issue and held it like a quivering victim 
in his toils, till he mastered the issue and convinced his 
hearers. 

Most advocates start too far away, and end long after the 
end is out of sight and out of hearing. Once well told is 
told enough. One good reason need not be worn thread- 
bare by over-handling, and when a counsel goes off into 
science, metaphysics and generalities over minor matters, 
he dulls the edge of reason and tires his jury. 

There is such a strong disposition to cut across lots in 
business, and juries are so well informed, and should be so 
fully convinced by the testimony, that speeches are lost if 
made tiresome. Men have a right to look for apt words. 
"A word spoken in due season, how good it is." "He that 
hath knowledge, spareth his words." One had better say 
too much than too little, but just the right thing will be 
neither extreme. 

Careful attention will show the stopping point, and place 
the closing period where the end should be, before the 
sharp point is over-worded. Endless talkers are sure to 
lose their grip. It is the man who talks little and in pithy 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 135 

sentences that wins suits and settles differences. Con- 
stantly objecting, or frequent side cuts of interruption, may 
require some lively sparring to get even, but the telling 
speeches are the short, sharp, clear cut, stinging ones that 
pierce to the heart like a swift arrow and execute the will 
of the advocate. Witness the address of McReynold's in 
the Stevens' Insurance suit, where talent, character and 
eloquence were arrayed in force against a country lawyer, 
who, with a period seldom equalled in any language, told 
more in ten minutes, than hours of round-about reasoning 
could accomplish. Judge Curtis, whose opinion is second 
only to Beach's in America — and in this case shared in by 
the latter — says of this McReynolds closing: * * * "It is 
a gem in English literature, sublime in sentiment, eloquent 
in heart thoughts, grand in its simple simplicity. Who 
could resist such strength of reason, combined with his 
power of vivid pathos." Here is part of it: 

"Even now, by your silence and interest in this case, I 
hear you say stop, delay not longer, let us begin the work 
of justice! Stop till we right this wrong at once! Stop till 
we restore these orphan children to their own, to that char- 
acter they will love to honor — a character as pure as they 
believed it on that last sad night, the night before the night 
of death ! Stop till we give a verdict and a vindication !" 

Judge Beach was more especially pleased with the pas- 
sage of the accident just before the one quoted, which he 
pronounces rare: "I can see her now, a.s plain as yesterday. 



136 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

It is evening. It is twilight. The snow is falling fast and 
slippery, whitening the little white walk to the cistern. She 
is confused; she has company. She seizes the pail, hurries 
to the cistern, catches up the hook, leans over the curbing. 
Slips! Falls! The water covers her! No one hears her! 
She is drowned ! It is an accident." 



ON HIS MERITS. 



The success of a doctor may be aided by good nursing, 
and nature's efforts to revive the patient. In eight cases 
out of ten, except in seasons of epidemic, rest and a natural 
vitality will withstand ordinary diseases. This fact gives 
doctors a great reputation, but such is not true of lawyers, 
whose clients once in trouble, generally stay in for a good 
season, and no reputation can be made in law, save on the 
merits of the lawyers. 

Some may dream that wealthy relatives will do it; some 
that influential friends can elevate one to power and posi- 
tion — and they may for a brief season — but the lawyer has 
one road, and one only: he must win for himself, and be as 
much independent of relatives, friends and riches, as if row- 
ing a boat race; mettle, and mettle alone, must count in him 
if he conquers. Cheers help a speaker, but no amount of 
cheers win a law suit. Wealth helps one socially, but not 
in a law suit, before a jury, to any great extent. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 137 

There may be instances of purchased positions, but they 
are clerical or secondary places; there may be corporation 
counsel appointments, where wealth turns the scale, and 
secures the place for a favorite; but corporations are none 
too ready to rely on other than actual merit in legal matters. 
So that at the outset a strange feeling must come over a 
young student in his early practice; that he must make his 
own way in practice, and to preferment, unaided by any- 
body. 

There is one source of encouragement in this thought to 
the worthy, and that is the fact that he will own his honor 
when he earns it. It may stimulate his energy in character 
building, which of all things is the best capital in practice. 
It may urge him to braver work, and nerve him to endur- 
ance, to reflect that in the legal arena he is struggling alone 
for a name of winning cases, and earning fame, that with 
the lookers on, are the friends and relatives who will cheer 
his first victory, but he is the racer, who must outrun others 
to secure it, and probably it does cheer him, for few are so 
careless of a good name as not to desire, and wish to deserve 
one, for this reason, if no other, the legal profession opens 
a broad arena of competition. There is no storekeeper, 
dealer or merchant who meets an equal competition with 
the lawyer. 

His way is beset with tricks and accidents. His client 
may be honest and may be knavish. He may be wise, and 
is more likely to be foolish. He may be discreet, but has 
more likely given away his case in some left-handed letter 



138 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

or admission where opposite counsel will say "we have the 
best of witnesses — a confessing defendant/' and mean it. 
But while the law never requires of one to do impossible 
things, it has said in a wise maxim that ''reason is the soul 
of law," and all one really needs is earnest endeavor and 
common sense to reach the true basis of practice. 

The rare chance may not come in the beginning. It may 
come later. Most good lawyers mature well along in life, 
with gray hairs and increased confidence; with cases Avon 
and large experiences; with friendships made that turn into 
line quickly when one is known to be successful. Such is 
the whim of human nature that once on the wave of popular 
favor, every one who knows you is pleased to be friendly 
and joyous at your victories. 

Who did not know that Garfield was great, and would 
•exceed Grant's popularity in Chicago? Who was more 
willing to call Grant great while away over the water, stand- 
ing at the foot of the high stone steps, as Queen Victoria 
came down and held out both hands to greet him? Who 
did not thrill with pride as he marched arm in arm with 
Bismarck? and later rode through Jerusalem in triumph; 
rounded the Globe and landed at the golden gate of his 
native shores ; called out vast crowds to greet him, and was 
the lion of two Continents? 

Such is life, and such is victory. Success makes friends, 
and defeat makes enemies. The world will bow in season, 
■or growl in season. Let one slip like Colfax — once one of 
the greatest of senators — how soon were his enemies ready 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 139 

to belittle his honesty? See Conkling, one of the most 
brilliant of statesmen, and whom millions believed the 
leader of all stalwarts, how soon he was maligned by 
slanderers? 

• But the glory of the lawyer is his strength. His knowl- 
edge and acumen must be forever respected. It is his last- 
ing capital. Fires never burn it; slanders cannot kill it. 
Distance, time or rivalry cannot destroy a man's legal 
capital actually acquired and frequently tested. This is the 
merit of the whole matter. What one owns in knowledge is 
liis, is valuable, is lasting. 



REMEMBER LITTLE THINGS. 



It is well to remember not only that kindness begets kind- 
ness, but that "vainly is the net set in sight of the bird ; v so 
that kindness must be a growth of our being, an every-day 
practice. Chief Justice Waite never passed an old acquaint- 
ance, juryman, witness, or party to a case, without a cordial 
recognition. His nature was one long day of even dealing, 
and considerate deportment to others, high and low alike. 

A friend says of Matt Carpenter: "I was with him in an 
important ship canal case, when hundreds of thousands 
depended on the issue. He had turned away caller after 
caller of distinguished senators and visitors; he had de- 
clined all company, when the secretary announced, 'Mr. 



i4o SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Carpenter, the little colored girl waits to see you.' Instantly 
the pen dropped, and the senator had her come in, and said 
in a kind voice, 'Well, Liza, did you get the place?' 'Xo, 
Massa Carpenter; that place was all full.' It was to be 
janitress of a committee room. The senator added, 'Wait 
a moment, and I'll go with you, Liza;' and out into the 
evening to the committee room went the great supreme 
court lawyer, and soon secured the situation, saying: These 
men callers can come again, but it would break the little 
girl's heart to turn her away rudely.' The next day he won 
the canal case, but the joy at finding a place for little Liza 
was as great to the advocate as his greater victory." 

The incident touched me; acts like these give all orators 
a better hearing before a jury; it is not enough to be great 
once, true greatness is always great. 

I was in a United States court when a distinguished 
counsel returned from a trip to Europe. His return to the 
bar was cordially greeted; first he paid his respects to the 
court, and then turning towards the bar he met the old 
janitor on his way with an ice pitcher, whom he greeted 
with equal politeness, and so on through the bar, but noth- 
ing marked the gentleman more than the natural ease with 
which he remembered the colored janitor. 

In most cases lawyers have to win the respect of parties 
and witnesses, and when one gets the name of sharpness, 
he draws that much less from his witness, and is that much 
more discounted by the jury. As "modulation is the music 
of oratory," so tact is the weapon of an examiner. Men of 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 141 

fairness, men of candor and reputation are not long in get- 
ting the facts of a controversy in issue; therefore, it is all 
essential to be manly, to overcome the dread of testifying, 
to lead a witness to truth telling in natural language. 

To gain the confidence of everyone, and deserve it, re- 
quires a life of uprightness. To such a lawyer, half of his 
cases are easy victories. His words are weighty. Suppose 
such a man asks a witness, "May you not be a little mis- 
taken?" the answer will be, ''Yes, possibly.'' "May not the 
plaintiff have been just a little to blame ?" "Yes, he may 
have." "And you may be just a little prejudiced?'' "Yes." 
"May he not have spoken harshly?" "Yes." "May he not 
have looked just a little angry, or disappointed; or attempted 
to show his manhood; then his courage; then his anger; 
then he did brace up?" "Yes, sir." "Just as you or any 
brave man would do, did he?" "Yes, sir." "And was ready 
to strike (or shoot) if forced to-?" "Yes, of course he was." 
After these yeses begin to be repeated, the judge would get 
"yes" to matters of importance. If one can listen a few 
days to the average run of court arguments, he will soon see 
how poor and awkward, how dull and monotonous most of 
them sound to outsiders. It is the province of counsel to 
present facts in a winning way, and in language persuasive. 
If he sang in a choir, he would practice; if he lectured, he 
would write and' commit every paragraph ; if he dreamed of 
fame as a painter, he would study fine art diligently; and 
this is but one man's opinion, but firmly believed in, that 
any advocate can be greatly aided by a thorough study of 



142 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

fine speeches, arts, and samples of rare work by others, and 
one that also believes many cases have been won by pleas- 
ant and pungent arguments, where the facts pointed to the 
other side without this rarest of all gifts, earnest eloquence. 

''He that is wise, is wise for himself," is a saying that 
ought to be framed, and hung up in every law office in the 
land. If he is wise for himself, he will not neglect to secure 
prompt settlements, and thereby lasting friendship with 
clients. That man who owes his counsel an X, or double 
eagle, or half hundred, some amounts too small to be sued 
for, will go elsewhere, and pay his money so long as the 
debt case can slide along uncancelled; and more clients 
change lawyers for lack of prompt settlements than any 
other cause, but the losing of cases. Of course lack of suc- 
cess always leads to change of counsel. But a lawyer is to 
blame who has failed to tell the real prospects of success 
and failure at the beginning; he that is wise will take a long 
look ahead, and provide a permanent life work by reason- 
able charges, honest advice and sturdy integrity. These all 
make friends, and friends make practice. 

I have heard attorneys say, "All the business I ever got 
came first from strangers ; my friends never helped me any." 
Poor fellow, he had never "grappled any friend to him with 
hooks of steel," or his story would be different. "He that 
would have friends, must show himself friendly," is too true 
to need one word of comment. The wisdom of the ages by 
the wit of one, need never be distrusted. "Better a good 
name and loving favor, than great riches," makes another 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 143 

of the rare rules of law practice. One who would have 
"reason impelled by passion, sustained by learning, and 
adorned by fancy,'' should gather maxims and rules, and 
commit passages until his mind becomes a fountain of fine 
thoughts and rare sayings, that come like an authority, for 
quotations always sound like authorities. 



LAWYERS' FORTUNES. 



The number of good lawyers, celebrated for eloquence 
.nd sagacity, that have gone down in middle life, and often 
at the end of a brilliant career, without the means of enjoy- 
ment that their talents deserved, is too large to specify. 
"Webster was a failure, financially, all the days of his life. 
He took in large fees, and lacked nothing in opportunities. 
He was a lover of farm life, and cattle and horses, and had 
a broad forecast of national matters, but cared far too little 
for his bank account. 

Carpenter made more money than any Senator of his 
time, for he worked more hours, but no one will credit him 
with a wise investment of his earnings. 

Butler had the foresight to buy rundown real estate, 
and improve it and make by it, until at his death he was 
believed to be worth several millions, but not through his 
law fees merely. 



144 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Fullerton has had one long, continued success at the bar, 
as has General Pryor, but neither acquired riches, and 
neither is financially independent. 

Dillon and Hoadly and Chamberlin, all celebrated trial 
lawyers, fall far short of a handsome fortune. 

Dougherty made more than a half million, and saved 
a snug sum of it, but was not rich by any means. Ingersoll, 
of all men, has a royal income, and no one credits the 
Colonel with great riches. He is known to command large 
fees and save but a small portion of them. 

Conkling, that prince of good livers, never saved a thou- 
sand a year while Senator, and only in later years retrieved 
his fortune. , 

Sumner (but he was hardly a lawyer) lived up to his 
income continually. 

Storrs was an able and eloquent pleader, located in the 
fastest growing city of America, and was on the popular 
side of politics through the war, but died without leaving 
a comfortable heritage for his family. Davis has dropped 
the income of a rich clientage for the meager stipend of a 
Senator. Edmunds must have saved something to retire 
in comfort, and Evarts, with princely income, is turning to 
the quiet ways of rural living. Carlisle is talented and elo- 
quent, and Breckenridge likewise, and neither is wealthy. 

Beach was a most brilliant advocate, and enjoyed while 
he lived the good things of life quite comfortably; but 
Beach was not a success financially. Hilton, who took a 
lower rank than anyone mentioned, has, by the luck of 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 145 

Stewart's friendship, carved out a fortune of more millions, 
and is no doubt a heavier taxpayer than all the names given 
of those living, aside from Butler. The possessions in 
money of all those mentioned would hardly equal Hilton's, 
but the fame of either would scarcely be exchanged for the 
Hilton millions. 

And this seems to be the goal of a lawyer's ambition — to 
reach fame and deserve honor. For it he toils years in 
drudgery; for it he endures seclusion, privation, ill-health 
and pecuniary losses; for it he clings to his clients and ad- 
vises peace when war and lawsuit would be more money- 
making. For it he leaves the gold to misers and holds fast 
to the honor of his profession. 

During my last interview with the lamented Regent 
Draper, in the winter of '91, a man whose talents and keen 
insight are well known all over Michigan, he related how 
he had recently closed a timber deal for a firm of clients, 
extending some six days in duration, consuming several 
hours each day — at least three days' service — on which, by 
his advice and sagacity, the firm made $75,000; and at the 
settlement the clients very generously offered $75. He 
replied that he guessed his services were not enough to 
charge for, and had better be donated under the circum- 
stances, which hint shamed the clients into a little larger 
fee; and he added: "Our court fees are paid for, but our 
counsel is given for a most meager compensation ; we make 
others wealthy; we are partners in their business plans that 



146 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

make them millions, but we are never appreciated." So 
Draper died without leaving a fortune. 



THE BOY LAWYER. 



The boy lawyer has every muscle to harden — all to 
develop, all to enlarge. If he "keep with the good, he will 
soon be one of them," as the Spanish put it. "If he misses 
the target, he must turn to himself for the cause of hie 
failure," for he surely cannot blame another. The first step 
(rightly taken) the rest is easy. 

"He must not attack a tiger without a weapon," or try a 
case unprepared. He must not "cross a stream without 
bridge or boat." (These mean readiness, theory, proof and 
law.) 

Like Alexander at the games, he must observe the single 
fact, that they that win the prizes in the games enter the 
arena and run, and not those who stand and look on. 

Carlyle's saying applies again here: "Success in life, in 
anything, depends upon the number one can make himself 
agreeable to." This is true of doctors, lawyers, merchants 
and business men of all conditions. 

Cyrus, the great general, started training at five years of 
age, in open air, on fleet horses and hard fare ; sleeping on 
the ground to harden his body. With his hardened muscle 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 147 

and trained mind he conquered the mighty armies of 
Croesus. He was a model in training. Wisdom is learning 
applied and made useful. But Cyrus had another virtue. 
He was a just man. Early in life his schoolmates referred 
their quarrels and disputes to his decision, and one day a 
large boy, having a small coat, and a small boy a large one, 
the stronger boy forced the other to change, and the matter 
was presented to Cyrus, who sided with the big boy. But 
the matter was appealed to his teacher, who reprimanded 
i.mi soundly, saying: "By what rule of justice do you allow 
the strong to override the weak? I would teach you that 
justice protects the weak. The strong need no protection." 
The lesson was life-long. The error was not repeated. 

The young lawyer must make friends, but be diligent in 
business. Whatever he has learned to do a little better than 
another will be rewarded. His turn will soon come. The 
ranks of the procession soon thin out and he takes a place 
nearer the front. It is a test if he is ready; if not, he goes 
backward; if ready, he steps in and forces his way to a front 
rank and a lucrative employment. Brains, work, will and 
industry, with constant practice, are always rewarded. 

Let him debate, speak, write, exercise, keep cheerful, 
grow strong in speaking, fill up with wise words, simple, 
elegant diction; be broad in reading, apt in illustration, 
fluent in story or incident. Webster, who forgot nothing, 
once said: "I carried it fifteen years 'till I found a fitting 
place to use it." Often one illustration wins a lawsuit, and 
fame alwavs comes of victories. 



148 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

GREAT SPEECHES. 



Colonel Ingersoll says: "If you wish to know the differ- 
ence between an orator and an elocutionist, read Lincoln's 
wondrous words at Gettysburg and then the speech of 
Edward Everett. The elocutionists believe in the virtue of 
voice, the sublimity of syntax, the majesty of long sentences, 
the genius of gesture. The orator loves the real, the simple, 
the natural. He places thought above all. He knows that 
the greatest ideas should be expressed in the shortest words 
— that the greatest statues need the least drapery." 

Lincoln went to Gettysburg with a preparation which 
Everett could not have had; he went there to perform a 
duty radically different from that assigned to the Massa- 
chusetts orator. The weight of responsibility resting on 
Lincoln's shoulders was enormous. At that time he was 
the brain and nerves of an excited nation. No reverse by 
the side of a muddy creek in some far off Southern State 
but sent a throb of pain through those nerves to that brain ; 
every strange visitor at the White House might be the 
assassin who was to come at last. 

The soldiers of the Union army were personally dear to 
him, because every regiment, every company, every man 
of them was needed by him on whom the people had thrown 
the burden of a war, which was not only to win success on 
the battlefield, but which also was to establish a principle. 
Is it any wonder that the words of such a man, at such an 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 149 

hour, are immortal? If ever inspiration comes to man, it 
came then to Lincoln. 



LOG CABIN DAYS. 



"The scene is mid-winter. The heavy snow banks are 
piled high along- the Adrian road in Southern Michigan — 
rude log cabins and plain rail fences are in the height of 
fashion. It is evening and early candle light. The sheep 
and the cattle are housed and cared for. The farmer and 
his boys are carrying in the night wood to feed the broad 
fire-place. Hark! Is that music coming down the big hill 
yonder? Yes, whole sleigh loads are coming singing on 
the clear evening air — singing familiar tunes with happy 
voices. They drive in by the cabin door, shake the fleecy 
snow from their outer garments and surround the big fire- 
place. They are not in full dress, but full hearted. They 
visit in earnest, read their letters from far-away homes in 
New York and New England; they talk of their clearing, 
the markets, their prospects, the news of their weekly 
papers, their churches; they enjoy their visit. 

At nine the warm lunch is brought on, with hot rye coffee. 
At ten the chairs are pushed back and an earnest prayer is 
offered by one who prays for everyone; for their friends at 
home ; for the wanderer in the bleak forest, if any there be 
without shelter; for food and raiment, friendship and charity; 



150 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

for the loved they have left, the prospects of the future; 
ior health and hope and happiness eternal, and the double 
blessing of a peaceful life. They say good-bye. They go 
away, three, five, six miles out in the wilderness to clear 
forests, to make States; these men who founded our vil- 
lages; these women who were a help and a comfort to their 
children, who have done more to build up America and 
American institutions than idle men ever could do, and 
women who have gone down into the very valley and 
shadow of death to bear children; the mothers of a race of 
men, of soldiers and statesmen. They are growing scarcer. 
They are going to their rest after labor. And of all things 
that have blessed our nation these were the double blessing." 



A THRILLING SKETCH. 



A train from the East had a terrible experience two miles 
east of Mt. Vernon. A destructive prairie fire was raging 
at that point, and the dust and smoke made the surround- 
ings as dark as night. The engineer plunged the train into 
the darkness, and the first thing he knew found the ties on 
fire for nearly a mile ahead. He checked the train, fearing 
to advance lest he should find no track ahead of him, and 
there, in the suffocating smoke and scorching heat, with 
blazing ties underneath the train and flames on each side of 






SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 151 

the track, the crew sought to extinguish the flames and save 
the train. 

The passengers became excited and pleaded to be released 
from the death by fire or suffocation that seemed so near at 
hand. Children cried for pain and gasped for fresh air, and 
strong men became desperate and left the train to fight the 
flames, only to return to the coaches exhausted. For a time 
escape looked impossible. The train crew and passengers 
worked heroically. Men gasping for breath felt their way 
to the tender and got water to dash on the burning ties, 
while others went a few feet ahead of the engine to see 
whether it was safe to move on. It was dangerous to move 
ahead, and behind, the road was on fire. But it was death 
to linger, and when the surroundings either meant move or 
death, a start was made. The suspense and horror of the 
few moments required to pass over the burning track and 
through the terrible heat and smoke cannot be expressed, 
but the train finally pulled out of the flames to fresh air and 
safety. 



IN AUSTRALIA. 



Hardly anything here has the character, quality and rela- 
tions that it has in other lands. Although the trees and 
flowers are chiefly those of the temperate zone, the birds are, 
for the most part, of the tropics and flash the gorgeous col- 
ors of the parrot and the cockatoo through the dull foliage 



152 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

of the sad-toned eucalyptus. The birds have no song, and 
such notes as they possess seem like weird echoes from a 
period when reptiles were assuming wings and filling the 
tree tops with a strange jargon, before heard only in the 
swamps and fens. The flowers have no scent, while the 
leaves of every tree are full of odor.< The trees cast no shade, 
since every leaf is set at edge against the sun, and shed, not 
their leaves, but their bark, which, stripping off in long 
scales, exposes the naked wood beneath, and adds to the 
ghostly effect which the forest already holds in the pallid 
hues of its foliage. 



MONEY MAKING. 



Money making with the ancients was confined mainly to 
kings and misers. The common people had very little to 
do with it. This is largely the custom of Eastern nations, 
even in our day. 

Merchants originally carried their stores on the backs of 
camels in caravans, and traded by the roadside one article 
for another, but very little money was exchanged among 
dealers. 

It is related that competition was a little more severe then 
than that between the wholesalers and retailers to-day, but 
of a very different character. The Moors and the Greeks 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 153 

were fighting rivals in business, and one time met on a high 
and narrow mountain pass, way up near the clouds, and held 
an angry dispute, for there was no room to pass each other, 
and one side (like the wholesalers and retailers of our day) 
must back down. The Moors said: "Greeks, back down 
your elephants!" The Greeks answered: "Back down your 
camels." A fight followed, long and bitter, and only one 
Greek escaped alive. Over the high precipice went the 
loads and camels. Over it fell the huge elephants, all in 
one common ruin. 

This was a foolish transaction. There was no business 
in it. It ended in a double ruin to both caravans. 

Mark Twain tells us that the Moors are cunning people. 
They make and save money on the sly, and if the king 
knows it he confiscates it. At one time they invented a new 
$2 gold coin, and that is so small that if overcome by an 
enemy they can swallow it. This is the practice in their 
country. 

Shakespeare tells of Timon of Athens; how he became a 
great money maker, and finally grew to be very liberal. He 
would give away to every one. The people knew it, and 
flattered him by presents, like a beautiful pony, to which 
Timon would pay back a team worth ten times their value. 
But he ran out of money and became poor. (He did too 
much credit business — he trusted his people.) Well, when 
he got very poor he called on his friends whom he had fed 
and feasted, and of course expected small sums of money — 
very much as men who sell on credit expect when they send 



154 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

out a collector. The result was just as it is with us. They 
were all hard up — very suddenly hard up ! Timon became 
disgusted. He abandoned his home. He took to the 
woods. He wandered away poor. War came upon his 
country, and he was invited back, but he refused. One day 
he found a vast deposit of gold and became rich — very rich. 
Then the people wanted him home again. He refused, and 
said he would not trust such a people. (He had enough of 
the credit system, and knew how to handle his money.) 

Money making in our day is peculiar. Here the common 
people become wealthy. Flood & O'Brien in San Francisco, 
were poor dealers. They supplied the miners with what 
was called a "grub stake" — food till they could develop a 
mine. Suddenly both grew very rich in millions. When 
Flood went home to New Jersey he had a gold trimmed car 
— the finest ever known in America. A drayman in In- 
dianapolis bought a farm of a neighbor — paid down $500, 
and next day sold for $35,000 net profit. I could multiply 
cases. 

Nearly every leading business man in Detroit, Toledo, 
Chicago and New York, came to his wealth by trading or 
by business, by saving, by investing, by waiting the growth 
of property. They were poor once, hard up often, but they 
had foresight and ingenuity. I could call the roll and give 
names, but names are not needed. You know it is true, and 
need no proof of it but your own experience. 

Money making is mainly in cities. The richest either 
seek cities or places near them. It is the rule to say the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 155 

place to make money is where money is. In Kansas City, 
now a place of 140,000 people, 70,000 have settled in the 
past six years. They are earnest people. They stand to- 
gether, trade with each other, believe in their town, and 
press its growth in every direction. 

Wichita, Kansas, is another marvel in growth and pros- 
perity. The people are full of life and energy. They like 
their city ; they push its growth ; they trade with each other ; 
they believe in home markets. They recently raised $40,000 
to bring in a wagon works to increase the pay roll and ad- 
vance the interest of real estate owners. Minneapolis is 
another case of rapid growth by home pride and home deal- 
ing. There is no city that grows faster; 22,000 in 1870, 
160,000 in 1886. They are even jealous of St. Paul — once 
as much larger than their city as Chicago is larger than De- 
troit. It is said that a minister in giving out his text as 
from St. Paul, actually emptied his church by the announce- 
ment! 

In all of these cities you find men buying for cash and sell- 
ing for cash, buying at home and selling at home — stand- 
ing together. They know that cash trade is trade at a 
profit. That credit trade is worse than wholesaling retail 
goods. They know that credit trade soon places the mer- 
chant's capital in the hands of idle spendthrifts, and to them 
it means debt and mortgage, and "debt is a monster that 
binds them in irons, while interest eats out their vitals," 
while a cash trade means a discount on bills of six per cent, 
and that doubled once a month is a splendid interest. 



156 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

I know a case of a run-down stock — no names are men- 
tioned — a new man took hold — placed the shelfkeepers — the 
unsalable goods, by themselves — marked and sold them be- 
low wholesale — closed them out — bought and sold fresh 
goods, and in thirty days was taking in $90 a day up to 
$175 Saturdays, and selling at a profit. I know of a case 
where a man paid $9 a day rent and expenses, and now pays 
$5 a day rent and does double the former business. His old 
business was on credit Since he failed his trade is on a 
cash basis. Each discount their bills now and make a fine 
profit by it. It is one of the very best means of money mak- 
ing in trade to make it by discounts. Try it and win by it. 



GRAIN GAMBLING. 



Set over in a showy corner of nearly every large city 
newspaper at some time of the year will be seen the seductive 
card of some two or more New York or Chicago houses 
showing the prospective profits and a great willingness to 
engage in investing other people's money in grain options, 
or, putting it in plain English, who are willing to bet on 
how high or how low the standard grades of wheat will rule 
a day or 60 days next following. As if this were not down- 
right gambling. 

A man who plays draw poker and loses a V, or X, or 
double eagle, and leaves a half hundred of someone's money 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 157 

in a faro bank, may walk home wiser and more cautious for 
the venture, but not utterly ruined. Men who buy a lottery 
ticket and help to pay high salaried nabobs in Louisiana and 
other cities, may, once in a while, hear of one drawing a 
small prize by it. Of course such concerns must pay a little 
something for the sake of advertising. But even such a 
habit grows with practice and tends to lessen confidence in 
the sturdy industry and good contracts as a means of rapid 
money making. But men who once get the grain gambling 
fever are ruined ere they are aware of it. It is a Niagara 
whirlpool that never lets go of its victim till it lands him 
headlong in the seething abyss below, never to rise again. 
Grain gambling is a betting of a strange, uncertain kind. 
A thousand and one chances may change the scale and alter 
the result completely. The wind, the rain, the frost, the 
drouth, a war, a foreign turn, a pestilence abroad, all count 
in the market roll of nations to send up wheat or cut down 
corn prices. 

The moral effect is marvelous. Men of state repute, 
clerks of courts, heads of firms, confidential cashiers, men 
with trust funds, merchants, bankers, lawyers and business 
houses in firms and singly, once started in this gambling 
trade are lost to honor and lost financially in ninety cases 
out of every hundred. They buy and borrow and overdraw 
and beg and fail to pay and go downward to the last round 
on the ladder, and very rarely make by the merest chances 
and regain their foothold in business. They more often be- 
come drunkards to the habit and borrow of their friends and 



158 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

end in utter ruin. Not five dollars in ten go to the credit of 
the real owner. Firms that pick up a cool million and de- 
camp into Canada are very slow to put in all the dupes' 
dollars sent them from all over the country. They notor- 
iously place the lion's share in a private bank account of 
their own, skip into another country, some favorite resort 
for these fashionable bankers, and enjoy a few seasons' 
rest, then cross to Spain or South America, possibly to 
Mexico, and live up their swindles in riotous luxury. 

The wdiole scheme is a polite system of pilfering in which 
more banks have been wrecked, more widows and orphans 
made doubly destitute, more men in high life been sent to 
prison, more envious emulations and extravagance in life, 
more high-handed rascality practiced than all of the com- 
bined robberies, larcenies and burglaries of the nation. 

It is doubtful if the money invested in drink or the widows 
of drunkards begins to compare with those brought low by 
grain gambling. The delusion is so secret and seductive 
that few hear of it and less realize it. But in every village, 
every hamlet, every city, and even out into the country, from 
one to hundreds are caught in the meshes of this soul-eating 
canker and coaxed to invest trust money, savings bank 
money, money saved for mortgage payments, or saved to 
meet honest debts, or held to pay insurances, or kept for 
rainy days or held in trust for others, is thrown in the pool 
to be squandered by the bankers who handle it. 

Instances can be given of a farmer near Oxford who lately 
lost $6,000 in wheat options; of another at Ovid who lost 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 159 

$2,200 in like manner; of a respected clerk of a court in 
Grand Rapids, who formed this dangerous habit of invest- 
ing in options till he squandered his salary and savings, bor- 
rowed all he could get trusted for, and ran down to the 
verge of insanity, lost his position and beggared his family 
by the investments, and to-day remains a living witness of 
its wickedness. 

A thousand cases could be given, but why name them 
when every city has its hundreds, and every village its ex- 
ample. 

Talk of rum's ruin; talk of broken homes by drink; talk 
of poverty, forfeited friendship and trust betrayed, you will 
find it in the swindling option buying on the broadest scale. 



LINCOLN'S ART IN COURT. 



In his famous Grayson case the guilt seemed almost cer- 
tain. Two young men wanted one girl. They were not 
friendly. Young Lockwood was murdered on a camp 
ground. Mr. Lincoln defended. All the witnesses were 
allowed to stand down without cross-examination, till the 
last one. Old Airs. Grayson grew impatient and wondered 
"why Abram didn't do something/' At last the tall lawyer 
stood up and said: 

"You saw the shooting?" "Yes." 

"Saw the pistol?" "Yes." 



160 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"Stood near by?" "No; twenty feet away." 
"In the open field?" "No, in the beech timber." 
"Leaves on the timber?" "Yes." 
"At ten in the evening?" "Yes." 
"You could see the pistol and how it hung?" "Yes." 
"Near the meeting place?" "Three-quarters of a mile 
away." 

"Did Grayson or any one have a candle?" "No." 
"How did you see it then in the night?" "By moonlight." 
Lincoln drew out an old blue almanac, showed that the 
moon rose at one the next morning, and there was no moon- 
light that evening. 

The moonlight perjurer was the murderer. 



DEFENDING THE ACCUSED. 



Society is Safer by Fair Trials. 
In a criminal trial the lawyer is not the judge. He is 
not even a juror. He stands for his client. His appeal is 
the appeal of his client. Flis voice is the voice of the ac- 
cused, who has a right to be heard. In the Sickles case no 
one doubted the fact that Gen. Sickles shot and killed Key. 
But some one should speak for him. Edwin M. Stanton 
and James T. Brady both appeared for him. In the trial a 
reference was made to the effect on Sickles as they broke the 
news to his child, and he broke down and sobbed, and quiv- 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 161 

ered, and shook with agony. His wise counsel saw that he 
had spoken eloquently for himself. They rested and won. 

In the Hayden case in Wisconsin, Emory Storrs defended 
Judge Hayden for shooting the betrayer of his wife, and 
said, "It is not in the law, it is not the law, for laws were 
never made broad enough nor statutes strong enough to 
restrain a husband's hand from punishing the invader of his 
home." 

In a recent trial a colored man had sent a note to a white 
girl to meet him at a mill where he was foreman. The girl's 
lover called instead for explanation. A quarrel followed. 
The colored man was shot deep in the neck and nearly died. 
The proof was certain. The intent was to kill the invader, 
for they were engaged. The case looked hopeless. De- 
fendant's counsel insisted that while one can defend himself, 
he can defend his wife, his mother, his sister, and — added 
counsel — his sweetheart, for whom will he ever love more, 
to whom is he nearer than he should be to her? and more, 
by the note the quarrel began — by the insult he brought 
upon himself all that happened. In the morning of life, al- 
most the honeymoon of marriage, he invaded a home and 
provoked the assault. It served him right. He won. So 
I could multiply cases. 

One recently defended, the Beamer-Baker case, where 
the guilt was certain. Beamer kept a restaurant; Baker 
boarded with him; fell in love with his wife; induced a di- 
vorce; married Mrs. Beamer; settled in the same city. One 
day they met and Beamer beat Baker nearly to death with 



162 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

a loaded cane. He had carried the grudge, and could not 
sleep. He was not insane. In the defense this line was 
used. Beamer acted in self-defense. In the quarrel it came 
out that Bridge in taking Beamer off heard him say: "Let 
me hit him, he stole my wife! He broke up my business! 
He ruined my home !" This was enough to provoke a quar- 
rel! Cicero said: "This is the law judges have not learned 
from books but was born in us, that if our life is in 
danger from robbers or enemies any means of safety is 
honorable. * * * Reason hath taught this law to 
learned men, necessity to barbarians, and custom to all na- 
tions and nature to wild beasts." 

The Burglar Story. — It's two o'clock — all are asleep — 
Scotten is aroused by a man with a drawn revolver who 
says, show me your money. It is shown. I see a ring on 
your wife's finger, take it off. The wedding ring comes 
off. Show me down-stairs! He is shown down, and so 
excited is Scotten that he invites him to call again ! 

Out into the night went the burglar. Back to his room 
went Scotten. His jewels and money and wedding ring 
were gone, but his wife was left! In the case at bar the wife 
was gone. And who shall say but that Scotten had a right 
to kill the robber half way downstairs, or out in the yard or 
anywhere? And the city say amen for society would be 
safer! And who will say but Beamer could avenge the de- 
stroyer of his home when in his words he said: "Let me hit 
him ! He stole my wife ! He broke up my business ! He 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 163 

ruined my home !" The cases are many where we know the 
guilt and see the extenuating circumstances. 



THE MEN WE CROWN. 



Demosthenes, the father of all orators — the first Grecian 
advocate of his time, after years of study and practice won 
the crown of gold in a seven days' contest with Eschines — 
who twitted his rival with cowardice and desertion, who 
begged of his people not to crown one who was unworthy, 
saying in this beautiful sentence: "The character of a city 
is known by the character of the men it crowns!" To this 
the great Demosthenes replied that often he had served with 
them in war on land and sea, that in defeat and victory they 
had stood together. He reminded them of the part they 
took at Marathon and Salamis and calling up the grand bat- 
tles he touchingly appealed to them and their honor that it 
was but the part of brave men they had all taken. He won 
the crown of gold by a tremendous majority. 



IN THE SIGHT OF THE FATHERS. 



If it be true, as many believe, that the good of all ages 
are permitted to look down on occasions of rejoicing like 
this, and witness our happiness from their home beyond the 



164 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

stars, oh, what a scene must it be to-day where the fathers 
of a mighty nation are gathered to review the glory of a Re- 
public that they have planted and reared and made glorious ! 
What an army to celebrate this great birthday of our liberty ! 
and how they will rejoice in our prosperity. Well may Co- 
lumbus be proud of such a discovery ! Well may Washing- 
ton look down on a land of free men. Well may Jefferson 
and Adams, Jackson and Webster look with pride on a 
united people. And well may Lincoln and Douglass, Sum- 
ner and Garfield shake hands over the past, and pointing to 
that Constitution that living they defended and dying they 
remembered, say: "This government of the people, by the 
people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." 



THE TEACHER'S DEFENSE. 



It is a country school. A teacher trial for murder. 

The court room is packed to witness a trial that always 
excites a community. It comes into their homes and in- 
terests every one. The facts are best developed in the 
argument. The time is December, 1887. The place is Cor- 
unna. One hundred scholars are witnesses. The case is 
strongly represented for the people, who are determined 
to convict. (They have convicted the defendant in their 
hearts already.) Notice the answer of the very first witness 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 165 

sworn, to the question: "Have you formed or expressed 
an opinion in this case?" "Yes, sir, I have. I have said 
I am opposed to the use of fire arms in our public schools." 
(Sensation!) This reflects the average bias. A jury is 
obtained and a separation of witnesses ordered — one 
brought in at a time. Before any evidence is given both 
the people and the defendant counsel carefully state their 
case. 

The proof was strong on both sides. A single incident 
reveals a discrepancy. A scholar who saw the shooting 
swore that the teacher walked to his desk, took out his re- 
volver, put it in his coat pocket, on the front right hand 
side, from which he drew it when he fired at Morrison. 
This looked premeditated. On cross examination, it ap- 
peared that defendant had no such pocket in the coat. 
A part of the argument describes the case: 
It is morning and at recess; Calvin Morrison, an unruly 
boy, is about to be punished. He was a fighter, and could 
swear in all the modern oaths of the season. He would 

run away, and tell the teacher he would be d d if he 

would come in. The big boys laughed. It was very funny 
to them. He called the boy to punish him. The boy 
fought back, and was conquered. In the tussle a whip 
was broken over the boy's arm. xAnother was snatched 
from the teacher's hand by the boy, and recoiled on his 
nose, and it bled. The boy rubbed the blood over one side 
of his face, and smeared it. School was called again, and 
suddenly in came Morrison, the boy's father, a large man of 
190 pounds. Joscelyn, the teacher, weighed 122. One was 



166 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

a slender cripple; one a giant in strength! Morrison was 
angry. Throwing his hat on the desk, he muttered : 

"I want to know what in hell you're whipping my boy 
for!" starting toward the teacher, who said, "for disobeying 
the rules and running away." 

"Didn't you lick him for that yesterday?" 

"No ! but for disobeying another rule." 

"Well, if you ever lay your hand on him again, d n 

you! I'll pound you into the ground!" 

He turns to go. He sees his boy's face. He turns to 
Joscelyn and says: "D n, I've a notion to do it now!" 

He rushes to the desk. Joscelyn draws his revolver from 
his hip pocket and says: 

"Hold on, Mr. Morrison! You lay yourself liable for 
disturbing a school." 

On rushes Morrison to the rostrum. He clinches the 
teacher with his right hand thrown over his neck and 
reaches with his left hand for the revolver, now held off to 
the right at arm's length. The struggle is desperate. In 
the extreme moment of excitement and peril, nature and 
instinct prompts the thought to Joscelyn, "O, God! Must I 
shoot? Must I kill him?" The light goes out in his eyes. 
The room whirls. He loses his control. He knows not 
what has happened — whether an accident or a pull at the 
hammer has let go the dangerous bullet! Morrison is hit 
in the abdomen. The ball passes through the left lapel of 
Joscelyn's coat; it is buried in Morrison's body, but the 
strong man struggles, swearing "Let go of it! let go of it!" 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 167 

In a moment he wilts and weakens, and mutters, 'There, 
I can't hurt you now! YouVe shot me!" still lying on the 
teacher. 

The small man rolls the large one off, hurries for a doc- 
tor; gives himself up, is here for trial for doing what you 
and you and you would do — shooting in self-defense. Our 
Supreme Court has said three times: 

"The man when hard pressed by one of superior strength 
and violent temper, is to act under the circumstances as 
they appear to him. He is not obliged to even call upon 
by-standers for help, but may defend himself even to the 
taking of life, and it will be excusable homicide. He may 
or may not be in actual serious danger, but if he believes 
that he is, he may act and he is not expected to draw any 
very fine distinctions, when he believes his life is in peril, or 
his body is in danger of serious harm." (See Hurd and 
Brownell cases, 38 Michigan.) 

Such is the law of our State beyond all question; and 
such is the law of reason, of instinct and nature. 

But we have more evidence. We will show you his 
father, who knew of this terrible accident by the machine, 
of his peculiar dread and fear of danger; we will call upon 
his brother and prove the warning to the young man as to 
Morrison's quarrelsome disposition — a man who was hard 
to handle — who had^five fights a year on an average. We 
will call in the neighbors who have seen him break in the 
head of a sugar barrel with his fist; who have seen him kick 
an old man till he was senseless; who knew him to be 



168 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

violent and dangerous. Oh, we will satisfy you, gentle- 
men, in spite of this powerful army of trained scholars, 
who ran away, confused and excited; who claim the teacher 
fired twice ; wIiq heard the breaking desk as it was wrenched 
from the floor; who saw no smoke, who found a hole an 
inch square in the plaster, but no bullet; who admit the 
anger, the swearing, and the clinching, but saw no need 
of using a revolver! 

Finally we will show, as if to call one from the clouds 
to testify — that Morrison — the dying man, in the presence 
of two ministers and his family, when aware of his ap- 
proaching death, after he had twice been prayed with, 
asked : 

"Where is Joscelyn?" 

"He has gone for the doctor, to Owosso." 

"What! gone for a doctor for me?" 

"Yes." 

"Is there no hope for me?" 

"Not in this world," said the minister. 

"Then tell Joscelyn I ask his forgiveness. He will for- 
give me. I had no business there." And next to the 
name of the Saviour, the name of Joscelyn and his for- 
giveness was the last thought of the dying man Morrison. 

Shall we say any more, gentlemen? If we prove this, 
we will ask you to say in reason, "Not guilty." 

The defense proved what they stated. 

Judge Joslyn gave all of the defendant's requests and 
embodied a large part of the Hurd case mentioned. He 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 169 

held that a teacher stands in a school like a parent to his 
children, and may punish them in reason; and any inter- 
ference, like the call of Morrison, was unlawful, and he 
could be expelled by force as from the teacher's own home. 
The Court said he had been five years a teacher, and knew 
the importance of maintaining order in schools. That there 
was no evidence of extreme punishment or unreasonable 
punishment. 

In the closing, both grew eloquent, but the position of 
the former that "free schools are the foundation of our in- 
stitutions, sacred and must be sustained," seemed to go 
home to the jury. He spoke an hour on the evidence of 
self-defense; quoted from Cicero, impressed the fact that 
Joscelyn could do no less and be manly; that the best way 
to stop crime is to stop making criminals — indeed made 
an eloquent appeal that will be remembered for many years 
by all who heard it. Every available inch of space in the 
court room was occupied, every window filled with faces 
of those who stood twenty feet deep at each possible point 
of hearing, while beyond surged crowds of those unable to 
hear, but impatiently awaiting the result. Indeed, before 
the defendant's counsel had half finished his introductory 
address, whispers were heard on every side, "He's going to 
win the case." It was certainly one of the most intensely 
interesting and dramatic trials that has taken place in many 
years. 

In closing his address to the jury before an immense 
audience, counsel used these strong words of bad boys, 



170 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

that thrilled his hearers to earnest approval: "I have said, 
gentlemen, that bad boys make bad men. Let me illustrate. 
At a reunion in the old school house where I was trained as 
a boy, my first teacher spoke like this : 

" Tor nine years I taught this union school — often with 
few books and many scholars in an early day — always with 
young men and women older and larger than myself. 
Many were punished, for it was more the custom then than 
now. Often have I been threatened secretly that they 
would "get even with the teacher some day" (meaning when 
big enough, I suppose) — but no one ever struck back. 
Scholars, I have watched the progress of these boys and 
girls as they grew to manhood and to womanhood; many 
have outgrown their teacher in size and ability to master 
him. I have seen the studious children of the poor — little 
boys with patches on their trousers, and little girls with 
blue dresses of calico — grow up to men and women, and 
far outstrip, and stand head and shoulders over their fa- 
vored fellows in eminence, and I have concluded that good 
boys make good men, and good girls make good women. 
And I tell you with pain and with pride that one — only 
one — of my scholars turned out badly; he was unruly, ran 
away, went to the bad, and ended in prison — brought his 
father's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.' " 

"Ah, gentlemen, what a story this is, and how true after 
all! Have we not learned it by bitter experience that bad 
boys make bad men? And do we not know that good 
boys make good men? 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 171 

"Look about you! Look in this court house and see 
this array of Henderson boys and girls, urged on by their 
parents to fight a school teacher — urged on to sustain this 
Calvin Morrison, a boy of only 13 summers, whose curly 
brow wears the scowl of crime, who swears and damns his 
teacher, and fights back and brings his own father to the 
grave! Great heavens! has it come to this! has the sense 
of decency sunk so low that a community can take such 
sides and set such an atrocious example? (Great sensation 
in the court room.) 'And the king walked out and bared 
his head, weeping, "O, Absalom, my son, Absalom, my 
son! O, my son, would God I had died for thee! Absa- 
lom, my son, my son!" ' 

"I have told you, gentlemen, that in his school room 
Joscelyn was in his home! Who but he should guard and 
control it? Who but he should ward off invaders? Who 
but he should enforce order? His home was invaded, and 
he acted under the law of self-defense, that in our State 
makes him the judge of his own danger, and permits him 
when so assaulted to repel the assault, even to the taking 
of life, and defines such an act as excusable homicide. 

"It is clear, then, by the evidence of both sides, that there 
was an occasion for self-defense, which Cicero says is: 'A 
law that we are not trained in, but which is implanted in 
us; that if our life is in danger by robbers or enemies, 
every means of securing safety is honorable: * * * 
Reason has taught this law to learned men; necessity, to 



i/2 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

barbarians; custom, to all nations, and nature to wild 
beasts/ 

"Besides this, gentlemen, I assert that laws are not strong 
enough, statutes are not broad enough, and never can be 
created by man, to restrain his own arm from warding off 
danger when his life is in peril! As it appeared to him, 
you are to judge him! He was almost alone at recess. 
The boys were out He was set upon and frightened. He 
must act, and act instantly. He must contend with a giant ; 
with an intruder without warning. 

"He had been enforcing the lesson that the way to stop 
crime is to stop raising criminals! 

"And think of the lesson you would teach, if you convict 
him for standing at his post in a time of danger! You 
would strike a blow at our common school system that is 
a center column of our civilization! 

"He was frightened. Let me illustrate: When the gen- 
tlemanly burglar called on Orren Scotten, at Springwells, 
the other night, the family were fast asleep. It was 2 
o'clock in the morning. The cold steel of a revolver was 
pressed to Scotten's temple, and he looked up in the face of 
a masked man with a dark-lantern in one hand, and said: 
T suppose you want something?' 'Yes, get up,' said the 
burglar. He got up. 'Fold your hands.' Pie folded his 
arms meekly. 'Show me your money and no harm will 
come to you.' He hesitated. 'Show it! 1 demanded the 
burglar. He showed it, and when all was taken, $700 — a 
bright diamond ring was seen on the wife's finger. 'Take 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. .173 

it off!' demanded the burglar. The wedding ring was taken 
off by the husband, who went down (as bid), and showed 
the gentleman to the door, and remained so under his con- 
trol that he bade him call again." (Sensation.) 



"I must leave you, never to speak to you perhaps till we 
shall all stand for judgment. We will know each other 
then, our masks will all be torn away. I ask you to deal 
fairly, humanely, mercifully with this young man. I ask 
you to uphold the cause that he upheld! I ask you to set 
an example to dangerous men and check the raising of bad 
boys in our country! 

"To him, imprisonment would be more than death. Death 
in honor, at any age, is not to be so much dreaded as a life 
of dishonor. 'Whether a wall or a door, death undoubtedly 
opens into a better life. The heavens are full of worlds, 
by the side of which ours is a speck.' But to walk up and 
down a narrow cell for years to come out at last, if at all, 
broken in body and mind, and say, as the man did after 
six years of prison life at Auburn, 'How sweet the air 
smells outside to-day! I never knew the sunshine was so 
good before!' 

"But it will not happen ! It cannot happen ! 

"The last words of Morrison told, as he went to meet 
his God, are said to you, 'Where is Joscelyn? I want to 
ask his forgiveness; I had no business there' — going to his 



174 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

home beyond the stars; muttering the self-condemning 
words, in effect, he is innocent! 

"He is innocent! May God help you to give him a quick 
deliverance !" 



The jury took but one ballot and said: "Not guilty." 
As they filed past the prisoner and his counsel, each shook 
hands, and tears in the eyes of the audience were very 
plainly seen. Joscelyn was the hero of the hour, and a 
free man again. 



CHAUNCEY DEPEW ON BONDS OF COMMERCE. 



Chauncey Depew is the first after-dinner speaker in 
America. His style is a topic of interest. He is slim, 
lithe, active, with gestures from the start forceful, happy 
and what Canadians call clever — more so than eloquent. 
He is deeply in earnest and "all men are eloquent in that 
which they know." He knows much of railways and com- 
merce, therefore he is a taking speaker. He had to follow 
Air. Wffl, C. Maybury, whose periods were well rounded 
and beautiful — quite so in the one whe.n he said: 

"I believe the happy solution of these issues, upon the 
high principles that we have indicated, because of my 
thorough belief in humanity. In vain do we read the records 
of this humanity of ours (weak though we sometimes call 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. .175 

it) to find one instance where humanity has been called to 
rise to the hight of true grandeur and where it has failed 
to respond to the demand. The spark of divine origin is in 
us yet and waits only to be fanned into life as great emer- 
gencies arise. The white face of no little child has ever 
looked out of the window of a burning house that did not 
find brave hearts and willing hands ready to make any sac- 
rifice that the life of the little one might be saved." 



One of Mr. Depew's first moves is to gain his audience. 
Here is an instance at the Chamber of Commerce banquet: 

"The railroad position to-day can be accurately stated in 
the language of the mate of the whaling schooner, when 
the surly captain had offered him, because of his success 
in capturing one of the monsters of the deep, promotion, 
honorable mention and a share of the profits. Said the 
mate: 'Captain, I don't want no promotion. I don't want 
no honorable mention. I don't want no share of the 
profits. All I want is common civility, and that of the 
darndest, commonest kind!' 

"These chambers of commerce become good govern- 
ment clubs and enforce efficiency in public service and pur- 
ity and ability in public office. They are the sources of 
commercial and national union in a republic. They are 
schools, academies and colleges for the study and the teach- 
ing of sound political principles and economic doctrines. 
In time, there will be a central Chamber of Commerce at 



176 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Washington, in which each of these bodies will have a 

••jt 
representation. The great national chamber of commerce 

will most beneficently affect the legislation of Congress. 



"There is a singular fatality which overtakes the business 
man when he steps out of business and becomes a states- 
man. I don't confine this to men who are in business. It 
affects equally those who come from the professions. A 
man who has won the respect of his fellow citizens as a 
lumberman, or a merchant, a manufacturer, or a farmer, a 
miner or lawyer, an artisan or a teacher, becomes a member 
of Congress. The effort to spread himself over this great 
country seems to so thin his gray matter as to make him 
incapable of bringing to the business of the nation the same 
common sense which made him successful at home. 



"We live in an age of associations. Steam, electricity 
and inventions have so accelerated the pace of progress, 
have so reduplicated the forces of industry and trade that 
the individual has lost his place. Capital combines in cor- 
porations, not only where it is required in vast sums for 
railways and telegraphs, but in lumbering, mining, manu- 
facturing and storekeeping. Labor combines, both in sep- 
arate industries and in general federation. The educator 
and the scientist discover that development is so rapid that 
they must also form associations if they would keep step with 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 177 

the truth. The unit upon which liberty formerly relied 
must now be a drilled and disciplined soldier, assigned to 
his company, his regiment, his brigade and his corps. 
There is no more beneficent form of association than these 
boards of trade and chambers of commerce which are es- 
tablished all over the country. It is but a few years since 
they existed only in the large cities. Now they have been 
created in every village of over a thousand inhabitants. 
They are something more than boards of trade. They con- 
centrate the energy, the business tact and the progressive 
spirit which develop the village and make the town. They 
invite capital, they stimulate enterprise, they create the con- 
ditions which attract populations. They do more : while in 
no sense political, they perform the highest public duties. 
They know that extravagance or corruption increases taxes; 
that taxes make it more expensive to transact business, and 
that the town in which business can be most cheaply done 
will defeat its rivals. They become good government clubs — 
(applause) — and enforce efficiency in the public service and 
purity and ability in public office. They are the sources of 
commercial and national union in a republic. By correspond- 
ence all these bodies are in touch with one another. They 
are schools, academies and colleges for the study and teach- 
ing of sound political principles and economic doctrines. 
In time there will be a central Chamber of Commerce at 
Washington, in which each of these bodies will have a repre- 
sentation. That great National Chamber of Commerce will 

most beneficently affect the legislation of Congress. 
1 



178 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"The mind can scarcely grasp or the imagination conceive 
of the tremendous forces under the control of these com- 
mercial bodies of the United States. It is a well-known 
law that the prosperity and progress of the world are deter- 
mined by the amount of its transportation. The tons of 
merchandise which are carried in the general interchange 
of the globe are the indexes of its industries and wealth. 
The farm, the mine and forest yield their wealth to be 
turned into articles for the use and service of man in the 
mill and the factory and the furnace, the product to be 
handled by the merchant and the factor, and to be dis- 
tributed by the railroad, the steamship, the sailing vessel 
and the canal, and the sum of it all is the employment of 
the wealth and the labor of the country and the living and 
profits of its people. 



"The necessity of the continuance of our commercial re- 
lations with foreign countries for the disposal of the surplus 
of our farms and factories in a trade which has reached 
fabulous figures, imposes upon us also the duty of keeping 
inviolate the laws by which trade with other countries of 
the world is possible, and impresses upon us the lesson 
that we cannot disregard those laws without suffering the 
most serious consequences. We will always, and must 
always, avoid complications in European or in Asiatic poli- 
tics, but no foreign power can exercise a hostile authority 
in Hawaii, or Central America, or Mexico, or the sister 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 179 

republics of the southern hemisphere without receiving from 
us protest and resistance. (Cheers.) 

"How are we to preserve our prosperity and continue 
our progress? The drastic lesson of the last two years has 
taught us that this enormous internal commerce of ours, 
which includes all the productive elements which go to 
make it up, can be destroyed by distrust. Confidence and 
credit are the factors of American prosperity and progress. 
With confidence the spindles hum, the furnace is in blast, 
the miner is at work, the farmer is happy, labor has full em- 
ployment, capital is active and the wheel of the freight car 
is perpetually revolving. With confidence a business of in- 
calculable magnitude can get along with notes, checks, 
warehouse receipts, telegraphic orders and other commer- 
cial appliances, and with very little currency; without confi- 
dence there is not money enough in the world to conduct 
the business of the United States. We are all business 
men. Business men care nothing for feather-heads whose 
stock-in-trade is epithet or phrases. By business men I 
mean every man who uses his money, his hands or his brain 
in any activity. The time has come when, without regard 
to temporary madness or prejudices or hard names, busi- 
ness men should calmly consider the dangers of our situa- 
tion. We have been at the bottom and we are on the up- 
grade of prosperity; but it is purely tentative so far, because 
of doubt and distrust. Doubt and distrust about what? 
About the things concerning which, among a commercial 
people, there should never be any doubt or any distrust. 



180 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

We should have a revenue system so well defined that it 
could not be disturbed, except in minor details, for a genera- 
tion. While not discussing tariff or free trade, we should 
have a revenue system which will meet the requirements of 
the government and support it without direct taxation. 
(Cheers.) 



"There never should be any doubt as to the currency of 
the people. Their currency should be such that the world 
would recognize it upon a common standard. It is said 
that the debtor can pay his debts more easily in depreciated 
currency. There is an easier and quicker way, and that is 
not to pay them at all. The United States is a debtor, na- 
tional, municipal, railway and individual, to the extent of 
about fourteen billions of dollars. We have developed our 
marvelous resources with this borrowed capital. Of this 
sum one-third is held abroad. A well-defined policy to pay 
our debts at 75 cents or at 50 cents on the dollar would lead 
to two thousand or three thousand millions of dollars of 
securities coming home here for us to take. The presenta- 
tion of them in our markets would endanger the stability 
of every bank, derange every exchange and paralyze even- 
industry in the United States. The fiat of the government 
cannot make paper of value, nor silver of value, nor copper 
of value, nor gold of value, though it may compel any or all 
of them to be taken in payment of debts within the limits of 
the United States. There can be but one standard of value, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 181 

and that is a metal which will bring the same price whether 
it is in the bar or has the stamp of the government upon 
it. If the promise of the government to pay a dollar is to 
be redeemed at the treasury in a coin which is worth ioo 
cents anywhere in the United States and worth ioo cents 
anywhere in the world, then the dollar which pays the 
laborer for his work and the farmer for his wheat and the 
merchant for his wares, represents the full value of the 
labor and of the product for which it is paid. Anything 
less as money ruins our trade with foreign countries, robs 
the wage-earner and producer and makes us a nation of 
speculators. (Applause.) But, gentlemen, I have no time 
to discuss this question. I simply hint at it as the one 
which, unless settled, will make impossible that prosperity 
for which we are all longing and praying. 



"The sentiment which you have assigned to me is as 
broad as the continent. That commerce does bind to- 
gether these states is the assertion of a beneficent truth. 
The chain from the farm, through the lumber camp and 
the mine, reaching every store and industrial center, touch- 
ing every house and cabin, running over mountains and 
through valleys, binds the shores of the Pacific to those of 
the Atlantic and ties the gulf line to our northern boundary. 
(Applause.) 

"The . railroad is an expression of commerce, and the 
iron rails, interlacing and intertwining through the states, 



182 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

are bonds of union. The electric telegraph is a medium 
of commerce, and the wires stretching north, south, east 
and west, keep all our people in daily touch with each 
other. The telephone is the voice of commerce, and New 
York speaks to Chicago, and Chicago to .San Francisco in 
familiar and family conversation. 

"Our educational systems and our material development 
are happily blended in the interests of the republic and its 
perpetuity. Every dispatch which flashes over the wires, 
every voice which is heard through the long distance tele- 
phone and every train which thunders across the conti- 
nent are messengers of peace and union. (Applause.) In 
every one of our hundreds of thousands of common schools 
our thousands of academies, our hundreds of universities 
and colleges, our youth are absorbing the story of our or- 
igin, the history of our past, the splendors of our present 
and the promises of our future. Patriotism wedded to 
commerce and intelligence surely safeguards the continu- 
ance of the union 6f the States." 



JUDGE CURTIS ON EARLY AFFECTIONS. 



I need no apology for appearing before a jury of Ken- 
tucky; but it may not be improper for me to say why I am 
here. The nephew of that unfortunate man, whom it is 
my Christian privilege to defend, and myself were bosom 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 183 

friends. He was the friend of my youth. He was the 
friend whom, in all his manly beauty, whom, in all his in- 
tegrity of character, in all his loyalty of friendship, I loved. 
He, gentlemen, has passed away. He sleeps in that beau- 
tiful city of the dead, the cemetery at Lexington, wherein, 
greeting the eye of every beholder, that monument to Ken- 
tucky's greatest statesman, erected by pious and grateful 
hands, rises, as Webster says, till it meets the sun in his 
coming. It was in the name of that friendship, and it 
was for the love that I had and I bore for the staunch 
friend of my youth, that when the application was made to 
me I came here to espouse the cause of this unfortunate 
man, whom, really, gentlemen, God and not you ought to 
judge. 

I was very much surprised and grieved the other day to 
hear the gallant and chivalrous Colonel Breckenridge, and 
even General Rodman, make light of the disappointed af- 
fection of Colonel Buford in his early life. True it is that 
he sits there to-day, solitary and alone/ a childless man. True 
it is that about that ancestral tree clusters only himself 
and brothers, and they are childless men. True it is that 
the condemnation provided by Heaven on the intermar- 
riage of close relations has fallen upon the first generation, 
and when they die they are the last of their line. Gentle- 
men, some twenty years ago he was captivated by the 
beauty and accomplishments of a Kentucky lady. He be- 
lieved himself acceptable to her, and the wedding day was set. 
Every preparation was made for it, but at the last moment 



184 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

she rejected him on the advice of her friends, because 
they did not believe him to be of a sound mind. And, great 
God! in this, the supreme hour of his life; in this, the hour 
of his great affliction, with all these years of despair and 
sentiments of prejudice combined to crush him, is it in the 
heart of any advocate — can it come from the lips of any ad- 
vocate to charge to his prejudice one of the sincerest attach- 
ments that ever graced the life of any man? How do we 
know but what, if he had met his destiny in that woman, 
instead of being here in this mortal peril, he might have 
been so controlled, so influenced, so directed, that instead 
of being, as it has turned out, a terror to society, he might 
have been one of its ornaments and one of its prides. How- 
can my friends on the other side feel that it is decorous, that 
it is even decent, to make sport and humor for a mis- 
cellaneous auditory of the disappointment of one of the 
greatest and divinest feelings in the human heart? 



And the proof in this case demonstrates beyond contro- 
versy or contradiction that for a long time anterior to this 
tragedy Col. Buford's nights were sleepless, and were 
passed in mental anguish and disturbance. He walked 
the floor, muttering to himself, cursing and denouncing 
real or imaginary foes, and, in weird communication with 
the spirits of the departed in the land of shades, listening 
to voices from an unseen world. In the language of some 
of the witnesses, great scalding tears rolled down his 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 185 

cheeks, and the strong man of dauntless heart was con- 
vulsed in a paroxysm of sorrow — and I ask you, gentle- 
men, is not the story of his life one that justly causes the 
tear of human sympathy to flow down the marble cheek of 
justice. Behold him upon the highway, astride his horse, 
talking loudly to himself and gesticulating to the air. 

It was not in this mood that Daniel Webster composed 
those prophetic and sublime sentences that saved the 
American Union and destroyed Governor Hayne. It was 
not in this mood that Henry Clay, the Great Pacificator, 
the Great Commoner, composed those magnificent senti- 
ments that enthralled the American Senate and fascinated 
the world. So you see that Col. Breckenridge in this illus- 
tration and comparison was not in his usual happy vein. 

I think I have now said all that need be said on our 
side of this case. It is in your hands. I thank you for 
the kind consideration and attention with which you have 
deigned to honor me. I am speaking here as it were for 
the dead friend of my youth, and if it is possible that he bt 
conscious of what I have done it is a consolation to me 
to know that he at least understands that I have never for- 
gotten the ancient friendship that existed between us. I 
have demonstrated in this proof that this man's life cannot 
"be taken without a judicial murder. I have shown you the 
acts and influences that operated upon his mind and the 
reason why, in the view of the law, in the view of medical 
science, in the view of Christianity, in the view of humanity, 
you should not lay your hands on that life. 



186 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

In the name of our Heavenly Father, whose service is 
perfect justice, in the names of your wives and children, to 
whose embrace you will soon return, in the name of Chris- 
tianity, humanity, science, progress and the law, lay not 
audacious and sacrilegious hands upon this mentally-be- 
nighted man, from his very infirmity under the protection 
of heaven. In the progress of the ages this country may 
become only the subject of the antiquary, but let not the 
historian of that distant day have it to record that a lunatic, 
o'ermastered by his fate, afflicted with the direst infirmity 
with which God has ever chastised any of his children, was, 
in obedience to the bestial voice of popular ignorance, 
clamor, prejudice, and revenge, in the gaze of the civil- 
ized universe, strangled to death on the scaffold and in- 
humanly rushed, soul unprepared, into the presence of his 
Maker. 

Col. Breckenridge, in his beautiful and eloquent perora- 
tion, brought before you the State of Kentucky holding 
in her hand the record of her list of crimes, and with her 
he brought the body of the dead judge. And upon this 
spectacle he demanded judgment for the people. I bring 
you, the dead judge, the mad assassin, and arraign all be- 
fore Kentucky, and demand, in her sacred name, her tradi- 
tions and her laws, that you be true to the solemn oath you 
have taken to true deliverance make between the people 
•and the prisoner. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 187 



CRITTENDEN ON SELF-DEFENSE. 



But where a man in sudden affray is beaten or assaulted 
in such a manner as to peril his life, or place him in danger 
of great bodily harm, when there is no other way of es- 
cape, he has a right to kill his adversary, and the law calls 
it justifiable homicide — killing in self-defense. The law is 
very tender of human life, and, therefore, homicide, even in 
self-defense, is spoken of by the English authorities as "ex- 
cusable rather than justifiable." And thus the definition of 
it given by Lord Bacon is, "A blamable necessity." Yet 
though blamable, it is a necessity, and it excuses and ac- 
quits the party. It is described as "that whereby in a sud- 
den broil, or quarrel, a man may protect himself from 
assaults or the like, by killing the one who assaults him." 
But it must not be used as a cloak for a revengeful and 
wicked heart, for we are explicitly told that we may "not 
exercise it, but in cases where sudden and violent suffering 
would be caused by waiting for the intervention of the law." 

But if, on the other hand, having rendered a contrary 
verdict, you feel that there should have been a conviction, 
that sentiment will be easily satisfied. You will say: "If I 
erred, it was on the side of mercy ; thank God, I incurred no 
hazard by condemning a man I thought innocent!" How 
different the memory from that which may come in any 
calm moment, by day or by night, knocking at the door of 
your hearts, and reminding you that in a case where you 



188 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

were doubtful, by your verdict, you sent an innocent man to 
disgrace and to death. 

Oh, gentlemen, pronounce no such verdict, I beseech 
you, but on the most certain, clear and solid grounds. If 
you err, for your own sake, as well as his, keep on the side 
of humanity, and save him from so dishonorable a fate — 
preserve yourselves from so bitter a memory. It will not 
do then to plead to your consciences any subtle tech- 
nicalities and nice logic — such cunning of the mind will 
never satisfy the heart of an honest man. The case must 
be one that speaks for itself — that requires no reasoning — 
that without argument appeals to the understanding and 
strikes conviction into the very heart. Unless it does this, 
you abuse yourselves — abuse your consciences, and irre- 
vocably wrong your fellow man, by pronouncing him 
guilty. It is life — it is blood with which you are to deal; 
and beware that you peril not your own peace! 



GORDON'S PLEA FOR MERCY 



"I can see men on this jury who remember that sultry 
Sunday morning when we were tired and had slept late, 
when the enemy came upon us like a whirlwind, scattering 
fear and panic in his course, while our half-dressed com- 
pany hurried to their saddles and saw a plain man, riding 
at a rapid gallop, on a big, black horse, along the lines, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 189 

sending one man to the right, one to the left, one on one 
message, one on another, and before we could think, they 
were all in their places, when the command rang out on the 
clear morning air, 'Charge!' and we wheeled into line, and 
with a desperate struggle, turned back the enemy that in 
a quarter hour would have driven all in the river! There 
was no rest for any one that day. All day long we fought 
in smoke and dust, without relief or rations ; and late in the 
afternoon I saw the man in slouch hat and dusty blouse 
galloping again up a hill, and raising his hat in mid-air, 
he said, 'Charge! double-quick! Charge!' and we charged, 
and won! And when I looked up into that plain, strong 
face, on beard begrimed with sand and smoke, and saw 
his beaming eyes full of satisfaction at the work we had 
accomplished, I said, 'That is the handsomest face I ever 
saw!' That was Grant at Shiloh. My boy was in that 
battle, was shot, went down to an early grave. Had he 
lived he would have been nearly the size and age of this 
boy (the one he was defending), and ever since that awful 
day we have set the vacant chair and placed the plate at 
the table, but we shall see him no more, till the great day 
hereafter. Though we mourn that loss and feel for our 
boy, how would such a death compare with a death in 
prison? Ah, gentlemen, death is never so terrible as dis- 
honor. It is an awful death to be buried alive in prison 
walls! to walk the narrow halls and beg for liberty, saying, 
'O, how sweet the air smells outside to-day; I never knew 
the sunlight was so good before!' Yet this is prison life, 



190 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

and prison death! Can you comprehend it? Can you un- 
derstand it? You that think the weeks are long, while you 
serve your state and stay away from home? You that long 
to see your flocks, your family, and even your favorite 
dogs, and count the days till you shall be free to go and 
gather up your little boys and girls? Think of it, men! 
Think of a hundred weeks, two hundred, three hundred, a 
thousand weeks, and no relief! Shut out from light! Shut 
out from home! That is a prisoner's fate. Such is a 
prisoner's home. * * * May the good angel of mercy 
keep your child and mine, and this poor boy — who is after 
all somebodv's bov — from such a dreadful death! 1 ' 



THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOLS. 



JUDGE MATTHEWS. 
APOSTROPHE TO THE BIBLE. 

"But if your honors please, let me say, for I conceive it 
to be a privilege to say it, that I believe that this book, 
which I hold in my hands, is a sacred book in the highest 
sense of the term. I believe that it is the word of the living 
God, as essential to our spiritual nourishment and life as 
the bread we eat, and the water that we drink to quench 
our thirst is, for our bodies. It records the history of the 
most marvelous appearance that ever occurred in human 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 191 

history — the advent in Judea of the man Christ Jesus, the 
promised Messiah of old, whom Moses wrote about, and 
of whom Moses was a feeble type; whom Joshua predicted 
when he led the hosts to take possession of the happy land 
prefigured; whom all the prophets foretold, and the Psalm- 
ist sung, and the people sighed for, throughout all the 
weary ages of their captivity and bondage; who appeared 
in the light and brightness of the heathen civilization of 
the Augustan age; who spake as never man spake; who 
healed the diseases of the people; who opened their eyes; 
who caused the dumb t# speak, the blind to see, the deaf 
to hear, and preached the Gospel to the poor; who was per- 
secuted because he was the living representative of divine 
and absolute truth, and who was lifted up upon the cross 
charged with blasphemy untruly, but slain upon the baser 
charge of treason to the Roman Caesar, while in the very 
act of declaring that his 'kingdom was not of this world;' 
lifted up, to be sure, by the hands of men, of ignorant men, 
for whom and for whose forgiveness he prayed, 'because 
they knew not what they did;' lifted up by their hands 
but in pursuance of a covenant that He had made in eter- 
nity with His Father that it should thus come to pass, 
because without the shedding of blood there was to be no 
remission of sin; lifted up in order that he might draw all 
men unto Himself, that whosoever looked upon Him might 
be healed of the poison of original sin and live. 

" 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins 
of the world!' That, if your honors please, is my credo. 



192 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

If I am asked how I prove it, I enter into no disputation 
or doubtful argument. I simply say that His divinity 
shone into my heart, and proved itself by its self-evidence. 
I have not three witnesses only, if your honors please, 
above. I have five — five witnesses in heaven to-day, that 
are calling to me to come to them. I would not give up, 
I would not abate a jot or a tittle of my belief in that book, 
and in the God that it reveals, and the salvation that it of- 
fers for all that this world can give. And yet, if your hon- 
ors please, in the spirit of my Divine Master, I do not want 
to compel any man. If he cannot believe — oh! it is his 
misfortune, not less than his fault, and not to be visited on 
him as a penalty by any human judgment. It is not to be 
the ground of exclusion from civil rights; it is not to bar 
him from any privilege. It is even, if your honors please, 
to protect him from the finger of scorn being pointed and 
slowly moved at him as if he were out of the pale of divine 
charity. Oh, no ; it was to the lost that the Saviour came, 
to seek them as well as to save them; and I know no other 
way, I know no better way, to recommend the truth of that 
book to those who cannot receive it, but to live like Him 
whose teaching is to be just, to be good, to be kind, to be 
charitable, to receive them all into the arms of my human 
sympathy, and say to them : 'Sacred as I believe that truth 
to be, just so sacred is your right to judge it.' " 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 193 

BEACH ON BEECHER. 



Nearing the close of the trial, and for the second and last 
day, the court scenes were supremely eloquent and impres- 
sive. Mr. Beach was cheered when he entered the court 
room, when he went out, and even at recess. The ladies 
shared heartily in the hand-clapping and applause, and were 
frequently heard to say, "Oh, did you hear that? Listen! 
It's grandl" 

His closing sentences were beautiful as he pictured the 
temple of justice tried by the turbulence of passion: 

We have stood together before this community ani- 
mated by a common object, seeking after the right in hon- 
est sincerity. The distempered plea of turbulent passions 
has been against the altar at which we serve. The boister- 
ous interests and sympathies of an interested people have 
tried the firm foundation of this temple, but the spirit of 
justice sees nothing of the tumult, hears nothing of the 
uproar. Calm and confident, she leans trustingly upon a 
jurors oath. Your consciences uphold the shaking temple 
and the tottering altar. If they weaken and fail, if the 
strong pillars of honesty and truth give way, temple and 
altar and God sink to a common ruin. The struggle this 
day is between the law and a great character and a great 
church. If the latter triumph, and the law is trodden down, 
woe unto him who calls evil good, and good evil. 

No man venerates more profoundly than myself the mag- 
nificent genius of this defendant. His large contributions 



194 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

to the literature of the times excite the sentiment of which 
Macaulay spoke in his essay on the Life of Bacon. Rich 
as he is in mental endowments, prodigal as his labors have 
been, they can shelter no offense against the law. 

Genius as lofty, learning more rare and profound, could 
not save Bacon. He sinned and fell. Upon his memory 
history has written the epitaph, "The greatest and the mean- 
est of mankind." Toward great men in disgrace, like those 
who fall, Whittier, New England's gifted poet, wrote in his 
poem entitled "Ichabod:" 

So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn 

Which once he wore! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 

Forevermore ! 

Revile him not — the Tempter hath 

A snare for all, 
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath, 

Befit his fall ! 

O, dumb be passion's stormy rage, 

When he who might 
Have lifted up and led his age 

Falls back in night. 

Scorn! would the angels laugh to mark 

A bright soul driven, 
Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark, 

From hope and heaven! 

Let not the land once proud of him 

Insult him now, 
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim, 

Dishonored brow. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 195 

But let its humbled sons instead, 

From sea to lake, 
A long lament, as for the dead, 

In sadness make. 

Of all we loved and honored, naught 

Save power remains — 
A fallen angel's pride of thought, 

Still strong in chains. 

All else is gone; from those great eyes 

The soul has fled: 
When faith is lost, when honor dies, 

The man is dead! 

Then, pay the reverence of old days 

To his dead fame; 
Walk backward, with averted gaze, 

And hide the shame! 

Gentlemen, I commit this case to you in the sublime 
language of the great orator who speaks to you from his 
grave at Marshfield : 

"With conscience satisfied with the discharge of duty, no 
consequences can harm you. There is no evil that we 
cannot either face or fly from but the consciousness of duty 
disregarded. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we 
take to ourselves the wings of the morning and dwell in 
the uttermost parts of the earth, duty performed or duty 
violated is still with us for our happiness or misery, and 
if we say darkness shall cover us, in darkness as in the light 
our obligations are yet with us. We cannot escape their 
power nor fly from their presence. They are with us in 
this life, will be with us at its close, and in that sense in- 



196 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

conceivable solemnity which lies yet further onward we 
shall still find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness 
of duty to pain us wherever it has been violated, and to 
console us so far as God may have given us grace to per- 
form it." 



A SILVER DEBATE. 



The question of the hour is "Sixteen to one, or which 
shall it be?" The coming year, or years maybe, will bring 
this question to the notice of every reading banker, lawyer, 
merchant and workman in the land. The doctrine of six- 
teen to one has been given a tremendous forward move- 
ment by Mr. Harvey, of Chicago, who is a young lawyer 
of considerable genius, and pitted against him in a recent 
debate Prof. Laughlin appeared before a fine audience, also 
showing himself to be a man of learning and fine ability. 
The pointed brevity of their arguments is attractive. Mr. 
Harvey's appeal to the masses by the lack of money is 
answered by his opponent by strong references to the 
cowardice of money in times of panic; that only a little 
real money is used or needed in business when confidence 
is restored, and especially strong are his reasons why sav- 
ings banks should never be allowed to buy silver at half 
rate and pay off depositors with depreciated money. That 
laborers would be the first and greatest sufferers from any 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 197 

money speculation. Neither is very clear on real bimetal- 
lism, the true solution of the whole matter. 

The question discussed was "That the United States 
should at once enter upon the free coinage of silver at the 
ratio of 16 to 1, independently of the action of any other 
nation." 

In opening for the affirmative, Mr. Harvey said: "The 
first reason why I am in favor of independent action by 
this country is that we should not be subjected to the in- 
fluences of the governments of Europe. When our fore- 
fathers declared their political independence from Europe, 
it was to free themselves from the class legislation of those 
governments justly termed plutocratic. If people can be 
reduced to poverty and the prosperity of the United States 
can be ruined by hanging to the financial policy of Europe, 
then we can be reduced to the same condition by financial 
legislation as a war of conquest would reduce us. 

"If a war of conquest in this country by the monarchies 
of Europe whose form of government is different from ours, 
would reduce us to the condition that the people of those 
governments are in, and they can accomplish the same pur- 
pose by financial legislation, then there is a necessity for 
independent action. Where there is a necessity, there is a 
remedy. The governments of Europe are plutocracies. 
They squeeze the lemon for the people about every so 
often. The few control class legislation and the masses 
are hewers of wood and drawers of water for the titled 
few. Now, if financial legislation is one of the classes 



iq8 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

of class legislation by which the many are robbed and the 
few are enriched, then it is one of the institutions of the 
European governments that we as a nation of people, re- 
publican in form, should declare our independence of. That 
is the first reason why independent financial action should 
be taken bv the United States. 



''This nation can have an independent financial system 
without any reference whatever to the balance of the world, 
and carry on its own commerce by ocean and by land with 
the other governments of the world notwithstanding. We 
do not now settle our balances with Europe in coin except 
on its commercial value and by weight. Our coinage has 
nothing to do with it. Primarily balances of trade are 
settled with trade. There is no such thing as an interna- 
tional money. What we are contending for is the opening 
of the mints to the free coinage of silver (they are now open 
to the free and unlimited coinage of gold and have never 
been closed to that metal) and the establishment of bimetal- 
lism on those simple and fixed principles that were adopted 
by those statesmen who had in view the interest of no class, 
but of all the people. 

"What we want is bimetallism. And scientific bimetal- 
lism is this: 

"i. Free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver, 
these two metals to constitute the primary or redemption 
money of the government. 



SPEECHES AND. SPEECH-MAKING. 199 

"2. The silver dollar of 371} grains of pure silver to be 
the unit of value and gold to be coined into money at a 
ratio to be changed, if necessary, from time to time if the 
commercial parity to the legal ratio shall be affected by the 
action of foreign countries. 

"3. The money coined from both metals to be legal 
tender in the payment of all debts. 

"4. The option as to which of the two moneys is to be 
paid in the liquidation of a debt to rest with the debtor 
and the government also to exercise that option when de- 
sirable when paying out redemption money. 

"The mints are now open to the unlimited coinage of 
gold. Such portion of the product of that metal as does 
not find an immediate demand to be used in the arts and 
manufactures is taken to the mints and coined into money 
and becomes at once the object for which all other products 
seek the market. It thus has an unlimited market as the 
mints are open to all of it that comes. 

"This was true also as to silver prior to 1873, but by 
operation of section 21 of the act of that year, the mints 
were closed to the unlimited coinage of that metal. Hence, 
when silver now seeks the markets and exhausts the de- 
mand supplied by arts and manufactures and the small 
purchases of the government to coin it into token money, 
the demand for it ceases. Gold has an unlimited demand. 
Silver has a limited demand. Silver is now a commodity 
to be measured in gold. It has been deprived of that un- 
limited demand it enjoyed prior to 1873. We would restore 



200 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

to it that unlimited demand. We would open the mints 
to it again. We would leave the mints open to gold as 
they are now. We would give silver the same privileges 
as gold. Restoring to it this unlimited demand would 
cause the value of silver to rise as compared with gold." 

* * * 

Professor Laughlin, in replying for the negative, said: 
"Apart from the well understood use of money as a medium 
of exchange, money is used like a common denominator of 
value with which other articles are compared. As a quart 
cup may serve as a measure of capacity, and as there is not 
needed a separate cup for every quart of milk in existence, 
so one can measure hundreds of thousands of goods by 
comparing with the same standard of measure. There is 
no need of an amount of money equal to all the goods in 
existence. The measure of value is that in which prices 
are stated and debts are paid, provided the measure of 
value is also made a legal tender in any country. It is 
evident then that the quantity of measure is not so material 
as the unvarying stability of the standard of measure. For 
the exchange of goods money is not needed in proportion 
to the transactions. This function is that of the medium of 
exchange. 

"The necessity of an increasing quantity of money is 
growing less important with the development of this sys- 
tem of exchanges. From 92 per cent to 95 per cent of 
transactions are performed by this machinery without the 
use of money and the recent investigations by the comp- 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 201 

troller of the currency show that 54 per cent of retail trans- 
actions are similarly performed without the use of money. 

"Prices since 1873 have not fallen because of the lack of 
money. Silver has fallen about 50 per cent as compared 
with a very modest fall in the price of commodities. Sil- 
ver does not have the same purchasing price in 1894 as in 
1873. Hence, free coinage cannot be urged as a wise 
means of paying debts. 

"More so-called redemption money by the amount of 
$1,092,000,000 is in existence to-day as compared with 1873, 
and yet prices have fallen and silver has fallen still more. 
Prices unmistakably have fallen because of the cheapened 
cost of production. Since we undertook the purchase of 
silver in 1878 it has fallen about one-half in value, al- 
though we have purchased about $600,000,000. It is per- 
fectly evident that there is no use in the United States act- 
ing alone to bolster up the price of silver when we have 
failed even in concert with the Latin union. Free coinage 
of silver at 16 to 1 means the single silver standard or sil- 
ver monometallism. To-day the market ratio between gold 
and silver is nearly 34 to 1. If we had the free coinage of 
silver at 16 to 1 there would be the premium of about 16 
ounces of silver as a premium on withdrawing every ounce 
of gold coin in circulation. The free coinage of silver under 
such conditions as exist to-day would not mean the 
concurrent circulation of both gold and silver. It would 
mean the immediate adoption of the single silver standard. 
Free coinage of silver would not increase the quantity 



202 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

of money. Since gold must be inevitably driven out the 
free coinage of silver would result in a diminution of the 
quantity of money. 

"It could not change prices merely by increasing the 
amounts of the medium of exchange. The way it would 
act, however, would be to change the prices of everything 
because reckoned in a cheaper medium than that of gold. 
For example, a pair of gloves now worth ioo cents in gold 
would exchange for about 210 cents in silver. A dozen of 
eggs now selling at 15 cents w r ould sell for about 30 cents 
and everything w T e buy would rise in proportion. 



"It is usually supposed that free coinage of silver is in 
the interest of the debtors. I think it will be found quite 
the contrary. Not only will it prevent a person in distress 
from being able to borrow money when he needs it, but it 
will create conditions which will make it impossible for the 
debtors to meet their indebtedness. But, greater than all 
objections, is that of public dishonor and repudiation. No 
trick or sophistry can make the scaling of debt to mean 
anything but dishonesty and cheating. Were free coinage 
of silver to be passed it would mean that every depositor 
in a savings bank, every investor in a loan association, even- 
holder of a life insurance, every recipient of a pension would 
have their dues reduced one-half. Is it possible that there 
is something behind this free coinage scheme not really 
discovered? Is it possible that it is aimed against the 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 203 

great mass of the industrious and intelligent and is really 
intended to serve the interests of the very rich and of great 
corporations? 



The act of July 4, 1890, unless repealed, would have 
brought us to the single silver standard. As it was, the 
mere suspicion of silver monometallism and the change of 
prices and of our standard of measure struck a blow at the 
solidity of our international trade, brought on the panic, 
made prices uncertain and caused doubt as to future plans 
in every factory and shop in the land. Those who have sil- 
ver mines and who can by their wealth control political 
parties and legislatures, who make the very seat of our 
national government their private offices and actually turn 
the national senate into a bureau for bulling the price of 
their product, to these men we say beware. We cannot be- 
lieve that a special interest led by millionaires can go on 
in their plan of sacrificing the taxpayers in order to heap 
up riches, especially when this is done on the most false of 
economic grounds which have been proved wrong by the 
experience of every country of modern times. 

"Extraordinary as is the proposal for free coinage, it is 
in truth only a huge disease. It was born in the private 
offices of the silver kings, nursed at the hands of specula- 
tors, clothed in economic error, fed on boodle, and as sure 
as there is honesty and truth in the American heart it will 
die young and be buried in the same ignominious grave 



204 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

wherein lies the now forgotten infant once famous as the 
Rag Baby." 



COL. INGERSOLL ON ALCOHOL. 



"I am aware that there is a prejudice against any man 
who manufactures alcohol. I believe that from the time it 
issues from the coiled and poisonous worm in the distillery 
until it empties into the jaws of death, dishonor and crime, 
that it demoralizes everybody who touches it, from its 
source to where it ends. I do not believe anybody can 
contemplate the object without being prejudiced against 
the liquor crime. 

"All we have to do, gentlemen, is to think of the wrecks 
on either bank of the stream of death, of the suicides, of 
the insanity, of the ignorance, of the destitution, of the 
little children tugging at the faded and withered breasts 
of weeping and despairing mothers, of wives asking for 
bread, of the men of genius it has wrecked, the men strug- 
gling with imaginary serpents, produced by this devilish 
thing, and when you think of the jails, of the almshouses, 
of the asylums, of the prisons, of the scaffolds upon either 
bank, I do not wonder that every thoughtful man is preju- 
diced against this damned stuff called alcohol. 

"Intemperance cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in 
its strength, old age in its weakness. It breaks the father s 
heart, bereaves the doting mother, extinguishes natural af- 
fection, erases conjugal love, blots out filial attachment, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 205 

blights parental hope, brings down mourning age in sorrow 
to the grave. It produces weakness, not strength ; sickness, 
not health; death not life. It makes wives widows, chil- 
dren orphans, fathers fiends, and all of them paupers and 
beggars. It feeds rheumatism, invites cholera, imports 
pestilence and embraces consumption. It covers the land 
with idleness, misery and crime. It fills your jails, supplies 
your almshouses and demands your asylums. It engenders 
controversies, fosters quarrels and cherishes riots. It 
crowds your penitentiaries and furnishes victims for your 
scaffolds. 

"It is the lifeblood of the gambler, the element of the 
burglar, the prop of the highwayman and support of the 
midnight incendiary. It countenances the liar, respects the 
thief, esteems the blasphemer. It violates obligation, rev- 
erences fraud and honors infamy. It defames benevolence, 
hates love, scorns virtue and slanders innocence. It incites 
the father to butcher his helpless offspring, helps the hus- 
band to massacre his wife and the child to grind the parri- 
cidal ax. It burns up men, consumes women, detests life, 
curses God, despises heaven. It suborns witnesses, nurses 
perjury, defiles the jury box and stains judicial ermine. 
It degrades the citizen, debases the legislature, dishonors 
statesmen and disarms the patriot. It brings shame, not 
honor; terror, not safety; despair, not hope; misery, not 
happiness; and with the malevolence of a fiend it calmly 
surveys its frightful desolation and unsatiated havoc. It 
poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confidence,. 



206 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

slays reputations and wipes out national honor, then curses 
the world and laughs at its ruin. It does all that, and more. 
It murders the soul. It is the sum of all villainies, the father 
of all crimes, the mother of all abominations, the devil's best 
friend, and God's worst enemy." 



CHAPTER IV. 



POINTS ON THE MAKING OF A SPEECH. 

THE GENIUS OF ORATORY— THE PREPARATION OF A 
SPEECH— A SPEAKER'S CAPITAL— STYLE OF SPEAK- 
ING—ORATORS AND ORATORY— THE ART OF 
SPEAKING— REAL ELOQUENCE— TOM MARSHALL'S 
ORATORY. 

THE GENIUS OF ORATORY. 



Genius in anything is the art of doing it. The object of 
the orator is to gain the attention, please and convince his 
hearers and carry their minds to his conclusion. To engage 
the attention, the topic should begin with something pleas- 
ant or beautiful, something so clearly comprehended that it 
at once creates a bond of sympathy between the speaker and 
the hearer. I have found nothing in literature more direct 
and applicable to begin a speech with than a terse story, a 
local hit or some far away legend. 



THE PREPARATION OF A SPEECH. 



In reply to a woman, as to the best age to begin with the 
education of her children, Dr. Holmes said: "100 years be- 
fore their birth." 

The best time to prepare a speech is years before its de- 
livery. To prepare one's self to make speeches one needs 



208 SPEECHES AXD SPEECH-MAKING. 

a large fund of information, a thorough reading up and a 
cultivated diction. 

Depew prepares most of his after-dinner speeches within 
an hour or two of delivery, giving a half hour's thought to 
each. But his oratory is exceptional. He speaks entirely 
of now, nearly always braiding in some dainty little story, 
or well turned witticism, as a drapery to what he says, and 
drawing on his vast resources of previous experience. He 
rarely writes his speeches, but they are well interspersed 
with stories and happy hits well digested. 

Both Sumner and Seward were careful students and drew 
on their vast learning for examples and pertinent matter. 
Garfield relied upon his memory and Webster always pre- 
pared elaborately, and even revised his speeches after 
delivery and before publication. So did all of the ancient 
orators. But on one thing public speakers are generally 
agreed, that little things said, apt quotations, terse stories, 
dainty sayings used in speeches mark the hits and clever- 
ness of the speaker. Who has not turned from a speech or 
lecture with a life long memory of even a single well-told 
story or witty turn in argument- 
There is not much left to remember of what Joe Jefferson 
says in "Rip Van Winkle/' but a little scene, as he is turned 
into the storm by his exacting wife, hangs like a picture 
ever after; and who can forget the pathos in the sentence: 
"I did not think so of you, Gretchen. I did not think that. 
And so you drive me out into the storm, Gretchen."' And 
he leaves his home in the night time with the pathetic 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 209 

picture vividly printed and engraven on our memory and 
that alone assures success to a great actor. 

There is no excellence without great labor. Estabrook 
spent six full weeks on his Lafayette address and in it has 
compressed Balsac, Hugo, Castellar and Meade — a lecture 
for a lifetime. Wendell Phillips committed every word of 
his "Lost Arts'' address, and it served the people for thirty 
years as his greatest production. 

Wendling repeats to himself his entire lecture each time 
before a public deliver}'. Singers rehearse frequently, and 
more time is spent by careful orators than the world ever 
dreams of. It is an art, a science, a profession. It calls for 
patience, practice and experience. The better method is to 
first think out the topic; think out the matter — fill in and 
make notes of it. - Then write it all carefully, then make an 
abstract; then commit mainly to memory, and make very 
large coarsely written notes or sub-heads; say in form like 
this: 

1. "Statue." 

2. "Born Poor." 

3. "Lawyer." 

4. "Debater." 

5. "Sorrow." 

6. "Cross and Crown." 

7. "Lincoln as a Genius." 

Commit head notes to memory. With this you are 
equipped for public speaking. Leave your notes in your 
pocket while speaking. 



210 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

How will you find a topic? Think it out. How clothe 
it? Think it out. You would not build a barn without 
prepared material, much less a dwelling, much less a crea- 
tion to outlast either barn or dwelling. Argument is the 
main material, stories and legends may be the cornices and 
drapery. Diction and choice of words will tell the work- 
manship; delivery is the soul and colors everything. Let 
the words breathe and touch and please and thrill and ele- 
vate. Let the whole be one pleasant melody, and you have 
a strong structure. 



A SPEAKER'S CAPITAL. 



The capital of a public speaker or reader is embraced in 
his matter, reputation, and ability to please the people. 
Without something pertinent to say he is a back number. 
He must be alert, and up to date in matter and material. 
The secret of an orator's success is to tell of something that 
will interest the people, either on moral, literary, historical 
or business topics. His character is a matter of growth. 
It is only attained by saying or doing something worthy of 
notice. Like Ingersoll and Dougherty, he may gain a char- 
acter and a hearing by a single speech; or like Depew it 
may be a growth of experience. Ability to please is an art 
worthy of study. There is the attractive element, the argu- 
ment and the eloquence. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 211 

There are speakers whose strength of character will alone 
attract and enforce attention, and whose powerful influence 
is like a standard authority for all they put forth in mere 
statement. But what of a boy's influence? What is the 
effect of a stranger's words on a public meeting? He must 
put forth novelty, musical tones and eloquence of delivery or 
beauty of some kind to pass it as current on an intelligent 
audience. Actors rely on delivery and interpretations more 
than on lines. There are those who can repeat the Lord's 
prayer and the Ten Commandments or read the ninth 
chapter of John in a manner never to be forgotten. 
To reach eminence requires material, practice, intensity and 
eloquence combined; and as one should start a bank account 
early to gain the advantage of interest and a capital to em- 
bark in business, so should the reader, speaker, or orator 
store away his fund of wisdom for use in his profession. 
Aim to be excellent, easy, at home, attractive and as elo- 
quent withal, as your talents will allow. Stretch every en- 
ergy, cultivate every brain muscle, and rise to the highest 
element of possible excellence. 



STYLE OF SPEAKING. 



Distinguished speakers of all ages are believed to have 
given as much care and attention to the art of oratory as 



212 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

musicians now give to cultivate the rare melody of harmon- 
ious and inspiring music. 

To suppose one can enter on the field so full of genius 
as the lawyer finds on his early admission to practice, with- 
out some system, or plan of meeting this essential, is to be- 
lieve more than men ever expect of any other business. 
The lucky man in commerce is one brought up from the 
habits of careful experience. To the trained sea captain his 
chart is simple. The bricklayer or builder is a student "of 
books and designs; the race-rider is one accustomed to 
horses, and even the woodsman has learned to handle his 
axe with clever skill and powerful force. 

Genius alone is well likened to a rich mine of metal, that 
thought and skill must apply to uses and values. It is not 
what we know, but how we make use of that knowledge, 
that makes the world better, or better comprehends its 
beauty. A man may out-think twenty of his neighbors and 
let nineteen of the twenty out-do him in honor and usefulness 
by one actual accomplishment. 

I have seen a man cradle wheat with an ease and poetry 
of motion, and another strike the scythe into the earth at 
every other clip from awkwardness. I have seen the mason 
evenly spread his mortar that a new hand would throw down 
his sleeve with a single attempt to fill his trowel. I have 
known the well-tuned voice of Phillips, in graceful modula- 
tion, to so charm the senses of his hearers that few could 
count it less than music, and no one saw the art of conceal- 
ing art that he had struggled so long to master. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 213 

The art to charm the senses by pleasing speech is an en- 
joyment greater to the speaker once acquired than to rule 
an empire. Gibbon wrote his "Memoirs'' six times to se- 
cure perfection. Turner walked over mountains and in the 
water till they colored the retina of his eves with intensity, 
before committing the colors to canvas. The elegy of Gray 
and the "Village" of Goldsmith, with the later examples of 
endurance by Morse and Edison, are apt illustrations that, 
"the hand of the diligent maketh rich" in oratory, in science, 
and all useful achievements. 

I am not urging the practice-before-a-looking-glass style 
but a plan of speaking of, and dealing with, subjects that 
will command attention, and secure a following. The method 
of Judge Curtis, of New York, is to think out his speeches 
as Sumner did. Van Arman writes incessantly during 
trials, while each master with consummate care the details 
of his case in his own peculiar way. 

Both Porter and Shaffer, of New York, wrote all salient 
points of evidence with their own pens, and trusted no notes 
to any but their own making. They committed their speeches 
as they went along; the former, a powerful examiner, the latter 
a master of human nature, both eminently successful. Judge 
Beach trusted different branches to associates, and spoke 
from copious manuscript; while Graham read frequently 
and quoted all the wisdom of the past, at command, on the 
topics under discussion. Emory Storrs spoke with power- 
ful rapidity, composed on his feet, carried his hearers with 
rhythmical sentences, but was a trained and thorough 



2i 4 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

speaker. Wirt Dexter was more deliberate, but equally 
effective. He was a master of modulation and emphasis, 
a student of fine language and rich in resources. 

Colonel Breckenridge, of Lexington, is one of the most 
flowery speakers since the days of Crittenden, whom his 
style resembles as Beach resembled Beecher. Daniel 
Dougherty, of Pennsylvania, was as fluent in his style as 
Tom Marshall was in his, without the eccentricities and 
brilliant fancy of that high bred Kentucky orator. 

Leonard Swett, of Chicago, and Colonel Broadhead, of 
St. Louis, form a pair of the most scholarly orators in 
America. Yet each could relate many struggles and bitter 
embarrassments in early life. They had mastered the art of 
advocacy in early days, but practice their art like musicians, 
reading and improving through years of experience. Jus- 
tice Matthews and Judge Hoadley present a striking con- 
trast, while General Butler and Senator Conkling are as 
widely dissimilar. Butler won by rarity of illustrations, 
Conkling by rich imagery, Matthews by his logic and 
intensity, Hoadley by his mastery of analysis and purely 
legal principles. Senator Carpenter was an ideal orator, 
who chose his central point and built around it, graphic 
in style, vivid in description. It required that giant, 
Judge Ryan, of Madison, to even approach him in ar- 
gument. Stars of such brilliancy are seldom now equaled, 
and never excelled, in Wisconsin, that home of brilliant 
advocates like Vilas, Hudd, Jenkins, and Hazleton. 



SPEECHES AXD SPEECH-MAKING. 215 

In the circle of the several States, from Gov. Davis, of St. 
Paul, on the west, to the scholarly Edmunds, on the east; 
from the musical pathos of Judge Curtis in New York, to 
the picturesque imagery of Gordon and Yoorhees in Indiana, 
and the florid style of Jeff Chandler, on the Pacific slope, 
or the same vigorous heart-speaker, like H. M. Furnam, of 
Texas, each and all have come to fame by force of earnest 
oratory, ripened by age, and burnished by use. They stand 
and speak at the bar and before the public, and in life's af- 
fairs, as actors do on the mimic stage ; studying their several 
parts with care and diligence, applying to them their genius 
and experience, ripened by age and fed by inspiration, till 
they so please their hearers as to meet most hearty recalls 
and clear appreciation in large emoluments. 

Tom Corwin, of Ohio, who started with Jere Black, and 
died young, was a master of advocacy, but a different kind 
of a lawyer. He won by wit. His speeches were flowery. 
He often captured a jury by a simple story, or a flight of 
eloquence, He enjoyed a joke, and made all others in hear- 
ing take an interest in his way of telling it. Large, laughing 
eyes, dark complexion, robust in speech and manner, for 
years he led the Ohio bar in eloquence and Avon his cases by 
it. He regarded his wit and manner- as a mistake, and said 
at last that "men never respect those who always make them 
laugh." That "one should look wise to attain eminence." 
Mr. Corwin was in Congress with Henry Clay, and made 
many brilliant little speeches and attained national fame. 
His work is mentioned elsewhere. 



216 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Webster and Choate were such active rivals as to be evenly 
mated. In the Smith will contests in 1845, tne heirs re- 
tained Rufus Choate as their lawyer, whereupon the friends 
of the will secured the services of Daniel Webster as their 
attorney. The case came to trial before the Supreme Court 
of Massachusetts, in July, 1847, an d occupied two days. 
There was the greatest excitement, not only on account of 
the interests involved, but also on account of the fame of the 
two great lawyers who were to speak for and against the 
will. "The battle of these giants" is still remembered in 
this vicinity, although it occurred nearly fifty years ago. 
So great was the crowd that ladders were put up to the 
windows of the court house, and eager listeners stood upon 
them for hours. When Mr. Choate had finished his argu- 
ment the conclusion was nearly unanimous among the spec- 
tators that the will would be broken ; but when Mr. Webster 
had finished his masterly address no one doubted but that it 
would be sustained — so say the older men of to-day who 
were present at the famous trial. The jury brought in a 
verdict sustaining the will. 

General Butler early learned the secret of Choate's suc- 
cess and matched it. He defended a famous case where 
Choate prosecuted, and in his closing made such a masterly 
analysis of his opponent's style, that he mortified the im- 
mortal Rufus, and won his victory. Butler has since won 
many verdicts, and next to Beach and Roscoe Conkling, 
was, 1883, the greatest living advocate in practice. His 
chief resource was a large brain and long experience 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 217 

in hard cases. He was government counsel in the Johnson 
impeachment case, and the master advocate of them all. 
What he failed to discern in a trial was hardly worth noting. 
His power of logic and strategy were both marvelous. In a 
railroad accident case the injured man said, "It's all my 
fault; if I'd been inside I wouldn't have been hurt," show- 
ing clearly contributory negligence. "This was but the 
wailing of a disordered fancy," said Butler, "for they swear 
he was in his place, inside the car door — all swear it but the 
allies of this corporation." He won a $26,000 verdict, 
which, on two new trials, reached $45,000, and was affirmed 
and settled. 

Roscoe Conkling's power was in mastery of language and 
force of argument. He was not a genius, like Butler, but 
a man of immense tact, with force of reason and logic. He 
was commanding, intense, graphic, and full of supreme 
courage, which is admired in a court room, and delights an 
audience. He rapidly acquired a fortune in his excellent 
practice. Had he always followed the law as devotedly as 
he did politics, his fame would have been greater as an ad- 
vocate. Large, tall, commanding, almost imperial in bear- 
ing, he was an attractive and impressive speaker, with 
scarcely a peer as an orator in America. 

These advocates, all successful, were each students of ora- 
tory, patient in detail, earnest in manner, effective in deliv- 
ery. While their number could be greatly augmented, and 
perhaps should be doubled, they represent the highest order 
of legal eloquence and American advocates. Many others 



2i8 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 

herein described are equally worthy of study, and their wis- 
dom and art dense with interest. 

Hon. Chas. S. May, of Kalamazoo, himself an excellent 
advocate, thus vividly describes Mr. Lincoln's style of ora- 
tory in his great campaign with Stephen A. Douglas: 

Promptly at the hour appointed for the meeting, in the 
midst of a buzz of eager expectation and quiet applause, 
following through the main aisle of the hall the chairman 
of the evening, there entered a tall, sallow-faced man with 
disheveled hair and lank, angular figure, dressed in plain 
black — and I had my first view of Abraham Lincoln. Pre- 
ceded by the chairman he mounted the bare platform at the 
end of the hall, and after a brief, formal introduction, stood 
face to face with his audience. I should, perhaps, say, 
stooped apologetically before his audience, for, bowed for- 
ward, with his hand on a low stand where he had deposited 
a few scraps of newspaper memoranda, he presented a timid, 
bashful appearance. His opening sentences were not more 
reassuring than his attitude. They were hesitating, in- 
volved and awkward, as he went on to depreciate his ability 
to follow so distinguished a speaker as Gen. 'Cass, of Michi- 
gan, who had spoken the night before in the same hall. In- 
deed, so lame and halting were his first words, and so awk- 
ward and unpromising his whole appearance that, recall- 
ing the eulogy of the party paper, I said to myself, "Can 
this be one of the first orators of Illinois? Is this what they 
call eloquence in Chicago?" But before my disappointment 
had time to deepen into disgust, the speaker began to 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 219 

recover himself, he raised himself from the table to his full 
height, his language began to flow more smoothly and 
grammatically, he began to uncoil himself in mind and 
body, so to speak, and very soon I was listening with rapt 
and deepening interest to his words. 

Of the speech itself, which held that weighty and intelli- 
gent audience for more than two hours, I still retain a per- 
fect and vivid impression. Delivered in an animated, earn- 
est, conversational manner with a clear and pleasant, but 
penetrating tenor voice, with no attempt at oratory or fine 
language, it was a candid, a convincing and powerful politi- 
cal argument, addressed to the reason and conscience of his 
hearers. Nothing could exceed its perfect fairness of tone 
and statement, and from beginning to end there was noth- 
ing to detract from its dignity — not an epithet or coarse ex- 
pression, not a single attempt to provoke applause, or create 
a laugh by anecdote or joke, or stale wit, or appeal to pas- 
sion or prejudice. Mr. Lincoln was famous as a story- 
teller, but he did not tell his stories in his speeches. He was 
full of wit and drollery, but he used these in private. The 
innate seriousness and earnestness of the man lifted him in 
his public efforts to a plane above these diversions. But his 
logic was overwhelming. Proceeding from premises stated 
with the utmost fairness, and with transparent clearness, 
it moved to its conclusions with a force and power and 
thoroughness that left no room or quarter for sophistry or 
evasion. 



223 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

In replying to the plausible and specious arguments and 
positions of his great rival, who was a master of political at- 
tack and fence, he had abundant opportunities to display his 
great power of analysis and his keen discernment of the 
weak points of his adversary. I remember, too, that he had 
a quaint and original way of putting things. Coming to a 
particularly untruthful and audacious proposition of his op- 
ponent he said: "Now, it is exceedingly difficult to answer 
such an argument as this. It gains strength and plausibil- 
ity, paradoxical as it may seem, from its very unreasonable- 
ness, for when a man like Judge Douglas makes such a 
proposition, a man who has been so long in public life and 
in a position to know, it is natural for men to say, 'This 
thing looks so all wrong and preposterous to us that we 
may be mistaken after all, for he must see something that 
we don't see.' " A spontaneous burst of quiet but general 
applause showed that the audience appreciated the keen, 
fine point. 

I will not undertake in this brief article to give even the 
substance of this great speech. Mr. Lincoln had momen- 
tous questions to discuss — questions of liberty, of slavery, 
of patriotism — and he treated them in a way I have never 
seen surpassed. Of all our great political speakers of this 
generation — and I have heard them all — he has been to me 
the model stump orator. Discarding all the tricks and ar- 
tifices and stock expressions so common in this style of ad- 
dress, he literally reasoned with the people, and lifted them 
up to the plane of his own patriotic and moral earnestness. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 221 

While it was not eloquence in the traditional and technical 
sense, it realized the very essence and definition of eloquence 
— persuasion. 



ORATORS AND ORATORY. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
(From Modern Jury Trials.) 

(The object of this work is hints on oratory to attract 
attention to the theme and illustrate by examples the power 
of eloquence.) 

The charm of eloquence, like music, must be heard to be 
appreciated, and comprehended to be enjoyed. So little 
can be placed upon paper that only rare passages read 
well and bear frequent repetition. 

Yet there are single speeches that have changed the 
fate of nations or saved a poor, quivering being 
from a cruel death of horrible torture; speeches that carry 
with them an inspiration forever, and, like old, familiar 
songs, when repeated, always awaken renewed interest. 

Very much of an oration dies with its author and the 
event that called it into being. A stranger, coming in sud- 
denly on a scene of local interest, in the midst of a stirring 
speech, would realize but faintly the real spirit of the occa- 
sion, and could hardly comprehend its true beauty. And 
no one will claim that a true repetition of that matchless 



222 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

oration of Demosthenes, in his contest for a crown, which 
included those magic words, "Man is not born to his parents 
only, but to his country!" could be delivered by any other 
than the mighty genius himself, who had long been im- 
prisoned by Alexander; who was moved by the plaudits 
of a mighty people, whose liberty he believed was hanging 
in the balance, adding fire to his eye, power to his voice, 
soul to his sentences, and energy to his expression. 

It was the pleading and the beseeching look from the 
crowded athenaeum that loosed the speaker's tongue, 
thrilled his nerves, lit up his features, and formed a 
granite foundation to his argument. Remove the sur- 
roundings, and you remove the charm of the oration. 

Following in this line of powerful speakers to the days 
of Edmund Burke, in the seven years' contest in the trial 
of Hastings, who will say that a clear likeness of this great 
intellectual gladiator, that made England shudder at the 
sound of his voice, could be reproduced without the long, 
long, weary trial, the building up of public sentiment, the 
occasion that gave force and fervor to debate, genius to 
oratory, and a scene of tragedy to the effect of his tre- 
mendous appeal. 

Not for the purpose of comparison merely, but as illus- 
trating, that speakers follow and range, in lines of Grecian 
or Roman oratory, as fully as styles of architecture are 
handed down for generations, in certain models and ex- 
amples, a chapter is given in this connection, with the 
briefest extracts of ancient oratorv included. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 223 

In the modern addresses which follow, attention will be 
given to the manner of delivery, as well as the selection of 
extended paragraphs from recent arguments, and their ef- 
fect upon jury cases. In this way, it is hoped, the student 
and advocate will easily compare the recent speakers' words 
and styles with the immortal names of history, and, in many 
cases, the modern may read equally as well as the ancient. 

The bold, glowing words, and deep sympathy, the tragic 
delivery and intense manner of Burke, in his four days' 
speech on Warren Hastings, are first chosen. After a vivid 
description of the horrors inflicted upon the natives of India 
by the agents of Hastings, during which many fainted and 
were carried out, "He was himself so overcome," says a 
writer, "as to be unable for many moments to proceed, 
and with head bowed in his hands, he waited in silence and 
deep emotion." Then he proceeded: 

"What is it that we want here, to a great act of national 
justice? 

"Do you want a criminal? Is it a prosecutor you want? 
Do you want a tribunal?" 

And then, in a majesty of words simply sublime, he 
says: 

"I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great 
Britain. 

"In the name of those eternal laws of justice which he has 
violated ! 

"I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, 
which he has cruelly outraged, injured and oppressed, in 



224 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKJING. 

both sexes, in every age, rank, situation and condition of 
life! 

"My lords, I have done! The part of the Commons is 
concluded! With trembling hands we consign the product 
of these long, long labors to your charge. Take it! Take 
it! It is a sacred trust! Never before was a cause of 
greater magnitude submitted to any human tribunal!" 

He was followed by Sheridan, that magic of impulsive 
oratory and eloquence, in a speech so grand and lofty, that 
the people sat five hours, spell-bound. No report was 
ever made of the words, and none could be made, of the 
fiery sentences as uttered; no pen could sketch the keen, 
magnetic look; the low, persuasive tones; the loud, vin- 
dictive manner; the power and play of passions, like the 
actor in the scene. 

This style of Demosthenes was employed by Lord Chat- 
ham, the eloquent defender of America, in England, in the 
time of the Stamp Act, when he said: "If I were an Ameri- 
can, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was 
landed in my country, I would never surrender! Never! 
Never! Never!" And by the same statesman, in his appeal 
for personal rights, when he said: "The poorest man. in 
his cottage, may bid defiance to all the forces of the crown ; 
it may be frail ; the winds of winter may blow through it; 
the storm may enter it — but the King of England can 
not enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the 
ruined tenement !"* 

♦"Orators and Statesmen," by Harsha. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 225 

Once in an age will be born other men, and other events, 
which may resemble, but will never excel, such scenes of 
mental contest. What was then voiced by a half dozen 
leaders, is now sown broadcast by a million papers — saying 
in advance all that is new or novel in our great achieve- 
ments. Once in a while, men like Henry will utter, "Give 
me liberty or give me death!" to remind us of Grecian ora- 
tory, but they will find it a well-told story, often read. And 
but for a Webster, this powerful style of a Demosthenes 
would have died before our day. It passed from the stage 
of actual oratory, and had lain, half forgotten, nearly a 
century, when Hayne aroused Webster, in the Senate, to 
great thoughts, that leaped to the immortal by a single 
bound; thoughts that could flow in no other channel but 
the heroic and sublime. In his reply to Hayne, that great- 
est effort ever made in modern times, the audience sat, 
silent, and when the giant's voice rang out through the 
Senate and the halls, and penetrated every room as he said, 
with such soul-stirring emphasis: 

"Xor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty 
first and union afterwards;' but everywhere, spread all over, 
in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, 
as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every 
wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear 
to every American heart, 'Liberty and union, now and for- 
ever, one and inseparable !' " 

The audience remained seated in silence; "hands sought 
each other, eye turned to eye, and hundreds hung breath- 
less on the echo of the orator's words." No orator ever 



226 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

excelled the effect of this master eulogy on our country. 
And no one can doubt that, in Burke's place, Webster 
would have fully equaled Burke, or, in Greece, even might 
have equaled Demosthenes. 

But there is another kind of oratory, described by Cicero 
as the art of saying things in a manner to please and per- 
suade, a mingling of passion and reason — thoughts set on 
fire, the sudden birth of a new expression, of grand ideas, 
by looks and words and actions — the means by which men 
are moved. This style of Cicero was not original. He 
studied it in Greece for years, wholly enraptured with the 
noble art. It was not Roman, but he gave it a Roman 
cast, and later historians called it so because it influenced 
Roman minds. It was neither the style of Demosthenes 
nor of Pericles, but of students of the great Grecian 
masters. Thus oratory has been a borrowed art for ages. 

This is the kind of oratory more suited to our day. It 
was employed by the gifted and graceful Roman orator, in 
his plea for a Roman citizen. It has more of the grace 
and charm of music and the art of persuasion, coupled with 
an ease of delivery that tells men to act in a way, never to 
refuse the simple and sensible request, that steals in on the 
senses by surprise, and takes us captive at its will. 

Eloquence is described as close, rapid, powerful, practi- 
cal reasoning, animated by intense passion, and speaking 
in a manner proper to persuade. An excellent example is 
of Cicero on the execution of Gavins: "In the middle of 
the forum of Messana, a Roman citizen was beaten with 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 227 

rods, and between the blows were heard 'I am a Roman 
citizen!' as if to ward off pain and torture from his person; 
and as he kept on repeating his entreaties, A cross, I say, 
a cross!' a cross was made ready for the miserable man. 
O, sweet name of liberty! O, admirable privilege of citi- 
zenship! O, Porcian law! O, power of the tribunes, bit- 
terly regretted by, and at last restored to the Roman people, 
in a town of confederate allies, that a Roman citizen should 
be bound in a forum, beaten with rods by a man, who 
only had fasces and axes through the kindness of the 
Roman people! What shall I say when fire and red-hot 
plates and other instruments were employed to torture him? 
If the bitter entreaties and agonizing cries of that man had 
no power to restrain you, were you not moved by the 
weeping and groans of the Roman citizens, who were 
present at the time. Men born in obscure ranks, go to sea, 
to places never seen before, and, owing to the confidence 
of their citizenship, they shall be safe. It is a crime to 
bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is wickedness, to put 
him to death almost a parricide. What shall I say of cruci- 
fying him? It was not Gavius. It was not one citizen. 
It was the common cause of freedom! exposed to torture 
and nailed on that cross !" 

The new star in English eloquence came with Erskine, 
with the style and elaborate finish of a Cicero, sparkling 
in imagination, replete with graceful gesture, elegance of 
expression, charm of manner, and refinement of sensibility, 
that won with an audience, pleased and persuaded. He was 



228 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

slow at first in development, but want and poverty drove 
him to the law, and when, as he says, "It seemed as if 
my little children were tugging at my skirts, begging for 
bread," he cut loose from restraint and became a natural 
orator. His warm, rich, brilliant sentences, ready and 
retentive memory, powerful imagination, and elegant ex- 
pressions, acquired by living in the language of Milton and 
Shakespeare, are read as masterpieces by thousands the 
world over. 

Of the few whose orations and speeches read well, far 
removed from the scenes that made them, are those of 
Cicero, Erskine, Webster and Everett, and of these the 
world will never tire of hearing. It is said that the single 
oration of Everett, on Washington, was delivered over a 
hundred times, in the different cities of the Union, and 
always to interested audiences. 

As the style of Webster was grand and vehement, like 
Demosthenes, the words and manner of Everett resemble 
Cicero. That same copious flow of beautiful, elaborate 
imagery, the refined, melodious sentences, the elegant and 
persuasive delivery, the rare sympathy and finish, the 
matchless arrangement of happy thoughts, gave a har- 
mony to his utterances that will never be forgotten. 

Space allows but one selection, old and yet ever new, for 
it never has been excelled in all the annals of eloquence. 

Horace Greeley said this speech of Mr. Everett, and Mr. 
Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, and. John Brown's address 
at Harper's Ferry, were the masterpieces of American 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 229 

oratory. I would change from Mr. Brown's speech to Mr. 
Webster's, and agree with Mr. Greeley. 

But here are the words of Everett that tell their own 
story : 

"Welcome, friend of our fathers, to our shores! Happy 
are our eyes, that behold those venerable features! Enjoy 
a triumph, such as never conquerer or monarch enjoyed — 
the assurance that, throughout America, there is not a 
bosom which does not beat with joy and gratitude at the 
sound of your name. Welcome! thrice welcome, to our 
shores! and whithersoever your course shall take you, 
throughout the limits of the continent, the ear that hears 
you shall bless you, the eye that sees you shall give wit- 
ness to you, and every tongue exclaim, with heart-felt 
joy, 'Welcome! welcome, Lafayette!'" 

In classic beauty and polished sentences Cicero seldom 
equaled and never excelled these passages. As has been 
said, tone, voice, manner, gesture and expression die, in a 
large degree, with a speaker; they can not be reproduced 
in print. While this is true of Air. Everett, it was doubly 
true of Mr. Webster, whose swell of voice and ponderous 
sentences were fit expressions of a giant mind that the cold, 
printed page can never convey. 

If this rapid glance at the orators of renown, and a few 
gems of their sayings, may serve to interest a reader, 
on themes gone by, how much more should our later events 
and modern court trials and orations serve to stimulate 
the advocate of to-day, as he reads the points worth pre- 



230 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

serving, and too often lost, of trials within twenty years 
in which orators of our times have contended in mental 
duels, where ripened learning- meets an equal foe, and where 
advanced civilization crystalizes the good and eliminates 
the verbiage of ancient oratory; where the higher intelli- 
gence of mankind demands that the methods of practice 
shall grow clearer and terser, to keep pace with the progress 
of the age. 

The orators of to-day are the wires and the presses. 
The eloquence is often supplied by the editor's quill. But 
there is, and always will be, a demand for stirring and elo- 
quent speeches, in court, in Congress, and on the rostrum. 
It is felt to-day as with the ancients, only in a less quantity 
and more refined degree. 

The oration of Ingersoll at Cincinnati in '76, the master 
speeches of Conkling and Garfield at Chicago in 1880, or 
the thrilling eulogy of Daniel Dougherty on Hancock the 
same season, were delivered with as much energy and effect 
as the speeches of Clay and Calhoun, and but for the 
power of the press, which had filled and prepared the 
people, the multitude would have been carried captive at 
the will of the speakers (as in the last instance they seem 
to have been). Men and manners may change, but truths 
and passions are eternal. Fear, hope, reward and human 
sympathy always have been and always will be subject to 
influences, and are swayed by the power of great minds, 
acting on minds, through the medium of eloquence. 
There are thoughts and themes that grow by repetition, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. . 231 

like the songs of Burns and Whittier, and the plays of 
Shakespeare. 

Orators have arisen, and will arise, who voice one event 
and one occasion; men with neither learning nor grace, 
nor logic, nor fine words, but with the rugged manner of 
a native Indian, drawing their inspiration from the Al- 
mighty, with a genius born of heaven, grouping some 
homely thoughts in eloquent delivery. 

Some one shall say again, in that beautiful rhythm of 
sympathy and grandeur, "Let it rise! Let it rise! till it 
meet the sun in the glory of his coming!" Some one will 
'look on a sea of upturned faces," who has not the gift to 
raise mortals to the skies, nor that other power to drag 
angels down! 

"Modern civilization," says a great writer, "is the differ- 
ence between an Indian's hut and a lady's parlor." But 
oratory has not advanced in that degree, for the brightest 
orations of our day have never excelled those of the 
ancients; nor have the most cultivated speakers ever used 
choicer words than did the little Indian girl at Omaha, 
who spoke in the simplest language of nature, when she 
said, "It is but a little thing my people ask, yet infinite in 
its consequences; they ask for liberty, and law is liberty!" 

By saying that eloquence is often born and never made, 
it may as well be said that oratory is oftener made than 
born. The true orator, like the wrestler, walker, or oars- 
man ? is a thoroughly trained and skillful man, read and 
cultivated to the art assumed; he has to deal with an age 



232 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

of reason, and he must deal in living lines of history, 
science and events; he must be ''burnished like a silvered 
sabre, without one rusty spot." American advocates have 
realized this requirement. They are terser, clearer and 
more industrious and ingenious every decade. They are 
growing more fertile in resources. Fifty years ago the 
plea of emotional insanity was unknown; now it's a sheet 
anchor to the rich and influential! 

Counsel do not all plead for insanity, and a clearer pic- 
ture of law and its uses will never be made than that beau- 
tiful word painting of Major Gordon, when he describes 
how "It surrounds us like the air we breathe, and lived 
before our being; that meets us in our helpless infancy, 
shields us with a mother's tenderness, follows us through 
the perilous journey of our lives, guards our liberty from 
the cradle to the coffin, and defends our persons and prop- 
erty from harm; walks with us to the verge of the deep, 
dark valley, protects our lifeless remains in peace till the 
coming of the resurrection! Nay, even the sweet rose, 
planted by the hand of affection, or the wild flower grow- 
ing on our graves, shall all be guarded by the strong arm 
of law!" 

A graphic description of law and evidence is aptly given 
by Mr. Lothrop, when he says: "All the mists are cleared 
away. The obscurity that surrounded this case has disap- 
peared. It is as though the walls of that bank were lifted 
up and the bright September sun should stream in, and 
show the dreadful deed! In the light of all this evidence, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 233 

you see, standing over the body of his prostrate victim, 
his hands dripping with blood, the murderer of Herbert 
Field!" Truly the walls are lifted, and we look in! 

The sturdy appeal of General Browne, for the law's 
vindication, is given in the Hetfield homicide: "Take this 
widow, and her helpless orphan children, and go to that 
lone and lonely kirk yard, and, standing by the grave of 
Calvin Hetfield — unmarked by stone or monument — and, 
in view of the great sorrow that this defendant has brought 
into the world, there, there write your verdict!" 

The sweeping and dramatic sentence of Storrs, in the de- 
fense of Babcock, is excellent: "He is not guilty, gentle- 
men, he is not guilty! I feel an inspiration settling in this 
court room, stretching away to Washington, as if to bear 
the glad news to his devoted family, who, in his humble 
home, where an anxious wife, now surrounded by her little 
children, are kneeling, watching, praying and looking 
to God! for his deliverance and joyous return to the capi- 
tal of his country, that he has served so long, so faithfully, 
and so well!" 

Here the speaker carries his hearers a thousand miles 
with a single sentence. 

The massive periods of Seward, and prophetic fore- 
thought of Van Dyke are too full of the sublime to afford 
a separation for introductory extracts. They will be found 
in extended paragraphs in the cases to which they pertain. 

And again, the sterner words of Judge Ryan : "Whether 
they come in the soft, white gloves of peace, or the dark, 



234 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

bloody gauntlets of war," breathe forth a Roman beauty. 

The deep drawn pathos of Graham, "Long enough has 
he endured the pelting of this pitiless storm; and who does 
not hope that he will find an asylum in your justice, and 
that it will be seasoned with mercy, as you yourselves ex- 
pect to be forgiven!" is thick with emotion. 

The homely eloquence of McReynolds, pleading for the 
little orphans is rare: "My work is done, gentlemen; but 
you will do a better work. Even now, by your silence and 
your interest in this case, methinks I hear you say, 'Stop! 
delay not longer! Let us begin this work of justice. Stop! 
that we may rebuke this cruel company. Stop! that we 
may restore these orphans to their own! to that pure char- 
acter that they will love to honor; a character as pure as 
they knew their mother on that last and long good-night, 
the night before the night of death! Stop! till we give a 
verdict that will vindicate a mother's name and a mothers 
love for her children !' " 

Arnold's appeal in Hubbell's case is pathetic: "And, in 
yonder cottage, almost within the hearing of my voice, 
there is yet another who is waiting, with intense solicitude, 
the result of your deliberations. She waits, in unshaken 
confidence and devoted love, for the accused. She is in 
deed, as well as in law, the wife of her husband, and she 
would clasp that man to her breast, though her arm were 
in a flame of living fire till it burned to its very socket! 
Her prayers are all around you — her hopes are all de- 
pendent on you. On bended knee, and with eye uplifted 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. ^55 

prayerfully to Heaven, before you, she implores you: 'O, 
give me back the husband of my youth! I can surrender 
him to God — I can surrender him to my country — but O! 
spare the blow which, while it destroys him, dooms me to 
lean upon a broken reed, and to a life without a hope !' " 

The stirring sentences of Beach are rhythms of beauty: 
"They were married when he enjoyed the bloom of her 
youth and heart's loving tenderness! Married when it 
flattered his vanity to control her beauty! Married when 
she went through the valley and shadow of death to bear 
his children! But when of all times marriage is most 
sacred, when they should be leading each other along the 
western hill slope, to rest together at its foot, then it is he 
seeks to cast her off and call the contract spurious!" 

Or that touching and brilliant appeal of Voorhees, for 
Mary Harris, that moved all hearts within hearing: "The 
wife who is graced by her husband's love is more beauti- 
fully arrayed than the lilies, and envies not the diadems 
of queens! But to the young virgin heart, more than all, 
when the kindling inspiration of its first and sacred love is 
accompanied with a knowledge that for it, in return, there 
beams a holy flame, there comes an ecstacy of the soul, 
a rapturous exhalation more divine than will ever again be 
tested this side of the bright waters and perennial fountain 
of paradise! O, how her prison cell has been lighted by 
the purest and gentlest of her sex, and delicate flowers from 
the loftiest statesman in the world, have mingled their 
odors with the breath of her captivity! In the name of 



236 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Him who showers His blessings on the merciful, who gave 
the promise to those who feed and clothe the hungry 
strangers at their gates, unlock the prison door, and bid 
her bathe her throbbing brow once more in the healing 
air of liberty!" 



THE ART OF SPEAKING. 



A bright young law student, a graduate of a great col- 
lege, lately asked: "What is the real art of speaking to 
please?" The answer was, "a full and thorough prepara- 
tion — practice." 

This thought has appeared often and been often re- 
peated. It will be repeated to the end of time and this is 
why. With nothing to say or nothing to sing, even Jenny 
Lind would have failed to please. No great speech has 
lived long without matter. Manner is a second considera- 
tion. Matter of the right sort set in simple words, is 
essential. The graphic, pathetic, humorous, quaint or 
eloquent way of putting it will tell in the end, but some- 
thing to say is essential over everything. Therefore, to 
read, commit, post up, fill up, intensify, embellish, prune, 
enlarge, amplify, yet chasten, all must be considered care- 
fully. 

The boast that our day is a day of scholars and colleges 
is idle in oratory without intense application. The one 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 237 

great thing that the poor boys have over the rich, is their 
struggle and development. The one great advantage that 
the unlearned have over the accomplished, is the struggle 
in development. The intensity of a struggle is lacking in 
modern education. No amount of reading tends to pro- 
duce originality like a struggle. Books are hints. In- 
spirations come from reading, listening and observing, but 
perfection comes only by practice. Lincoln's greatest 
thoughts were born of his struggle with adversity. 

It is the cross that wins the crown. Ruskin is right. 
The fortune is conditional. The fortunate orator is one 
who has not been handed all his knowledge ready-made. 
He has solved his problems in Euclid alone as did Lincoln. 
He has written choice thoughts on his heart to last for- 
ever. Margaret Fuller was a brilliant scholar at 13. She 
spoke several languages while a child, but she was utterly 
void of original thought. Such thoughts are the thoughts 
of others. It needs adversity of the hardest kind to make 
an orator. It needs a fund of information quarried out 
from one's reading, it is stretching the mind that makes it 
grow stronger. No amount of playing in the field together 
ever made a fast trotter. He must be trained in the race 
with others in actual practice to gain the hardened muscle. 
So practice, training, intense application must precede pub- 
lic speaking. But bear in mind: You will not be often 
called on if when invited you have nothing to say of in- 
terest to hearers, and will not long be capable and left 
without an audience. By fitness to do anything you attract 



238 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

to yourself those who are deeply interested in your theme. 

When a boy I attended a senatorial convention. The 
delegates were seated without contest and before nomina- 
tion the different candidates were asked to state their posi- 
tion on the banking question, which was the important 
issue just before the war. 

The first candidate (one of the daintiest dressed men I 
ever saw), began with the statement that he was so young 
when he left New York State that the law was not familiar 
to him, but if elected he would post up and be ready. 

Loud cries for Beeman, who came out with a miller's 
suit on and began to strike square from the shoulder, sav- 
ing he wanted every dollar in paper worth one in gold or 
silver. How in New York wild-cat banking, one quarter 
in hard money, had secured the full issue and many a bank 
had filled its currency kegs two-thirds with nails and the 
balance in gold or silver. "Nails are good in their place," 
said he, with spirit, "but not good in a money keg." 

As he proceeded he brought his strong hands together 
and the flour from his sleeves raised quite a dust around 
him. He was nominated ten to one over the dainty man 
and on the way home I was told that his clearness and 
earnestness would capture and convince any audience. 
His talk was all reason. He had learned by a struggle. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 239 



REAL ELOQUENCE. 



(From a Speech of McReynolds when 70 years of age.) 

May Stephens lived in Ypsilanti, and was insured in five 
companies, aggregating $20,000. The Michigan Mutual 
Life, of Detroit, contested their $5,000 policy on the ground 
of fraud. Deceased had only paid twenty-four dollars in 
all, was poor, and gave her notes for premiums. 

She was drowned in a cistern, leaving two small children 
— ages under fourteen. A guardian was appointed, and 
suit brought in the Superior Court of Detroit, which was 
crowded full as the trial came on. Judge Longyear left 
the United States Court to listen, and was invited to sit 
with Judge Cochrane of the Superior Court. The bar 
crowded in en masse, and witnesses and spectators packed 
the court room for many days. Counsel said: 

"The policy had its own conditions, was its own receipt 
— was made at the urgent request of an anxious agent. 
On failure to meet the premium, she was deprived of its 
benefits. Talk about honest citizens paying honest debts! 
Talk about fraud committed on this poor, afflicted com- 
pany, with its force of shrewd, sharp men; talk about the 
imposition of a loathsome disease! Why, gentlemen, what 
are the records on that fact? Strange her nearest neigh- 
bors never knew it. Strange the doctors never knew it. 
Here is their story in this application: Sound, healthy, 
five feet six, robust, skin clear, pulse 72, waist 36, no 



240 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

insanity, palpitation, erect, sound in every limb. Yet rotten 
with disease, they say! 

"Oh, what a monstrous absurdity! Experts chosen for 
learning, skill and experience, baffled by a poor, weak 
widow, who is seeking to impose upon the world by a 
fraud. She had a little money. She was coaxed to invest 
it for her child — her bright-eyed boy, for her little girl, fast 
budding into womanhood. She did. She went too far. 
She was over-persuaded. These men, pleading in her ear, 
telling the stories of profits, singing their siren songs, that, 
like the mermaids in the legends of old, which lured the 
returning seamen from their well-filled boats to tie up the 
ships and follow the sweet songs until far away from home, 
in the mountains and forests, they were lost, to die alone in 
hunger and delirium. It is said that ever afterwards 
travelers took warning, as they passed, and put wax in 
their ears to shut out the music of the allurers as they 
passed. This may be a lesson in our day, for only wax 
could shut out the pleading appeals to join this coaxing- 
company. * * * Oh, what a picture is here to behold ! 
Two little orphans battling with a giant corporation! A 
money power, backed by the bondholders and directors. 
How it rouses our impulses to witness the contest! 

'That mother, the object of this bereavement, is gone. 
Her lips are dumb; her voice is hushed — low in the silent 
grave. No whisper can come back to say: T fell. I 
slipped. I fell. I was misguided. I did all. I risked all 
for you! For you, my son, my child, my own! For you. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 241 

my little one.' She has gone. She has whispered the last 
good night and gone ! The secrets of her death are locked 
till judgment day. There they are sacred; there they will 
remain secure. 



"Oh! I can see her now; it is early twilight, it is winter, 
the snow is falling fast and slippery; whitening the little 
plank walk to the cistern. She has company, she hurries 
down the walk, catching up a pail, leaving the hook 
hanging over the curbing, bending low she slips, falls, 
the water covers over her, no one hears, she is drowned! 
It is an accident; and I almost hear her say, as she looks 
down to you, to this upright judge, this honest jury: 'Gen- 
tlemen, you may cheat my children, if you will, but spare 
them the burden of dishonor; the money will be a poor 
pittance at the most to that priceless character that my 
innocent children should inherit.' We plead for the money 
that they deserve, we plead for the character that they 
own, we plead for the justice that their evidence demands; 
make their lives happy and their mother's memory sweet — 
sweet as the day she bade them good-night, the night be- 
fore the night of death, little dreaming of the sudden end, 
little dreaming of the scandal they should meet, little 
dreaming she should be held up in horror to frighten a 
jury from duty; held up in shame and diseased to blot out 
the fair name she had earned for her children! You will 
not stain these little ones, gentlemen; you will not pay a 
P 



242 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

claim that way; you will not cancel a just debt by a mean 
insinuation of wrong. Why, gentlemen, they would have 
you think that this woman loved her little ones so much that 
she dared the pains of hell, and drowned herself, that they 
might be made rich, though orphaned ! No crown of glory 
she held in prospect; no garland of the blessed to be 
wreathed upon her brow! only a sordid fraud, a leap in 
the dark oblivion of the great hereafter, to get gain! 



"Gentlemen, my work is almost done; poorly as it is, I 
must trust to you to do a better work. And my little 
clients (here the speaker laid one hand on each of the 
clients' shoulders and amid the hushed silence of rapt at- 
tention, said), my little clients, may God bless you! I 
have done my best to make your names an honor to our 
state. But, O! how poor and weak my words have been. 
And you, gentlemen, even now, by your silence and your 
interest in this case, methinks I hear you say, stop! delay 
not longer! let us begin this work of justice; stop! that we 
may rebuke this cruel company; stop! that we may restore 
these orphans to their own; to that pure character that 
they will love to honor, a character as pure as they knew 
her on that last and long good-night; stop! that you may 
wipe away all tears from these orphaned eyes, and plant 
the sweet rose of a mother's love in their bright young lives 
to grow, b^oom and bless the world for their living in it; 
stop! that we may right this wrong at once. O God! put 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 243 

it into the hearts of this jury to see the truth; to vindicate 
a mother's name and a mother's love to her helpless chil- 
dren. 

"O God! remove the mist from this case, reveal the 
truth to these jurors, let them see their duty and give them 
strength to do right, and do it remembering that some day 
— yes, an early day to most of them, when they shall be 
called home, to leave, it may be, dependent children, and a 
sacred memory of a good name, that of future juries they 
may expect the same just finding that they have found for 
us — a verdict and a vindication!" Won. 



TOM MARSHALL'S ORATORY. 



Marshall believed in careful preparation of speeches. 

"They talk of my astonishing bursts of eloquence (he 
said), and doubtless imagine that it is my genius bubbling 
over. It is nothing of the sort. I'll tell you how I do it. 
I select a subject and study it from the ground up. When 
I have mastered it fully I write a speech on it. Then I take 
a walk and come back and revise and correct. In a few 
days I subject it to another pruning and then recopy it. 
Next I add the finishing touches, round it off with graceful 
periods and commit it to memory. Then I speak it in the 
fields, on my father's lawn and before my mirror, until 
gesture and delivery are perfect. It sometimes takes me 



244 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

six weeks or two months to get up a speech. When I 
have one prepared I come to town, am called on for a 
speech and am permitted to select my own subject. It 
astonishes the people, as I intended it should, and they go 
away marveling at my amazing power of oratory. They 
call it genius, but it represents the hardest kind of work." 

Here is a sample of his eloquence: 

Mr. Marshall said, "Gentlemen: In appealing to you, 
as the representatives of a merciful God, it appeared to me 
that it would have been quite enough for the gentlemen to 
consign the prisoner to an early and disgraceful grave in 
the midst of all his promise and all his hopes, without in- 
truding such a rhetorical display upon him. It appeared 
to me, that after recommending him to such a grave, or, 
in case he should escape it, to the whips and stings of con- 
science on all occasions and in all climes, and to every 
horror that a distorted imagination has been able to depict, 
we might at least have been left to our fate, and spared the 
infliction of such a speech and such an appeal. And to 
crown the whole, you are gravely exhorted, out of simple 
mercy, to rescue us from the horrible phantoms that have 
been conjured up, by handing us over to the hangman! 



"Attention has been directed to the past life of the ac- 
cused, and this traveled young gentleman is graciously 
informed that he may commence his travels over again. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 245 

But the permission is coupled with the assurance that 
wherever he may go — whether he shall climb the rugged 
Alps and wander in the regions of polar cold, or roam 
through the sunny climes of Italy and France, still every 
opening flower shall remind him of the flowers he has left 
blighted at home. Should he seek the blue ocean, we are 
told that each white cap will remind him of the shroud of 
his victim, and that in the boom of every surge, he shall 
hear the rattle of the death shot." . 

His words on self-defense are striking: 

"He had the right, and exercised that right of self- 
defense with which nature has provided him. But what 
does this right mean, 2nd how far does it extend? It 
confers upon me the privilege of beating off any in- 
jury or infringement upon those inherent rights with 
which God and nature have provided me. It gives me 
the right to exercise any means, to use any amount 
of force that may be necessary to repel such attacks. 
No man has a right to take my life; I may defend 
it and preserve it at any cost. But this is not all; a man's 
rights are not confined merely to the preservation of his 
life. He has others, many others, guaranteed by nature, 
that are nearer and dearer and which it is his privilege and 
his duty to protect. Without these, life itself could have 
no charms; and had I no other right than the simple one 
of existence, I would raise my own wild hand and throw 
back my life in the face of Heaven, as a gift unworthy of 
possession! 



246 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

"I maintain that I have as much right to defend my 
personal liberty as my life; but the force to be used is only 
that necessary to repel the attack, and to prevent injury. 
Were this defendant to attack me, and attempt to chastise 
me, I would have no right to take his life, because he is 
an invalid, and so far inferior to me in physical strength, 
that I have no reason to apprehend any serious injury. 
But with a man of more powerful frame than myself, the 
case would be different. He has no right to attack me; 
I have a right to defend myself, and I may use just the 
amount of force necessary to do so. If I choose I may 
strike him with my fist That would show a great deal of 
game; but if he were stronger than I, it would certainly 
tend to exasperate him, and render my chastisement six 
times as severe as it would otherwise have been. Per- 
chance I may be able to seize a bludgeon, with which I can 
fell him to the earth, and thus protect myself. But if no 
such means are at hand, will any man, will any Kentuckian, 
tell me that I must stand and be beaten like a dog, at his 
discretion? Certainly not. I may repel him and defend 
myself in any way I can, and if nothing else will prove 
effectual, I have a perfect right to cut his throat from ear ! 
to ear. I may use any amount of force whatever that is 
necessary; and this, as I understand it, is the law on the 
subject, as construed, applied and executed, throughout 
the land. I ask you to look at the facts in this case, and 
apply the law to them. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 247 

"Should he die for this? Does this act make it necessary 
for that young prisoner to be stricken from the roll of living- 
men? Does it render him unfit to live, and a dangerous 
member of human society? 

"But if you think to mitigate his punishment, will you 
immure him within the walls of a penitentiary? Will you 
cut those flowing locks — will you shave that classic head — 
will you snatch him from the bosom of his loving family — 
tear him from the arms of his girl-wife and rudely sunder 
every tie that makes life dear? Will you do this and call 
it mercv?" 



CHAPTER V. 



LEGENDS, STORIES, APT ILLUSTRATIONS AND 
QUOTATIONS. 



THE GENIUS OF PLEASURE. 



Fernanz, way back in the distant past, was known as the 
Genius of Pleasure, and was said to control all the elements 
that ministered to the senses. The groves, the flowers, the 
fountains, the stars, and the heavenly bodies were controlled 
by his genius, and seeing their effect on mankind, he con- 
ceived the plan to improve men's condition by culture. He 
selected a modest young boy, whom he caused to be trained 
in art, science, physical culture and the ways of wisdom and 
justice — never allowing him to meet or mingle with the op- 
posite sex during his training. 

He then selected a young girl of rare beauty and had her 
trained by twelve maidens in the ways of life with all the 
accomplishments of womanhood — keeping her in parks and 
gardens with pure human beings, entirely out of sight of 
men and boys, until the age of sixteen. / 

One day in the garden by chance in passing a pool of 
clear water, she saw reflected in the pool her own image, 
and exclaimed, "Why, I am created beautiful ;" for she com- 
pared the image with herself and readily determined that 
it was her own figure in the water. The flowers have beauty, 
she said, that I may admire them, and the trees, and 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 249 

the stars, and the fountains, but, oh, why am I thus propor- 
tioned without some object! In her reverie she fell asleep 
and dreamed sweet dreams of a being never before seen yet 
greatly admired in her vision. The being seemed to elude 
her advances and kept just barely out of reach, until finally 
she awoke. On seeing the very object before her, she 
shaded her eyes with her hands and said: "Oh, it is my 
dream, it is my dream;" and she turned to go away. Then 
came the young man, who had been trained from his youth 
up, and taught in all the languages and arts of refinement, 
yet in this emergency he had no words nor language, for 
deep emotion is not given to easy sayings. As they ap- 
proached each other and as he was about to lay his hand 
upon her head, Fernanz, concealed near by, was heard to 
say: "Stay young man, withhold your hand, touch her not, 
until you hear this lesson. It is not her beauty, sir, nor your 
manhood, that you each admire in the other, but the train- 
ing of your lives that has taught you the meaning of beauty 
and uprightness. Join your hands with each other, and go 
into the world, and so act and live that others seeing your 
conduct, may be taught to admire beauty and manhood." 



SHORT STORIES. 



Goethe says: For a man of the world a collection of 
anecdotes is of the greatest value. If he knows how to 



250 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

use them in conversation and fit them to occasions he will 
have a fund of perpetual enjoyment. 

In his simplicity Lincoln excelled all men, for three rea- 
sons: By his intense nature; his appetite for wisdom; his 
frankness and clearness of expression. 

Many a story is well worth money. Here is one that is: 

A farmer and his three sons caught a woodchuck in the 
harvest field. Each boy, especially the youngest, wanted 
him. The farmer, knowing his boys to be good debaters, 
said : "I'll tell you what we'll do ; the boy who can give the 
best reason for his political faith shall have the woodchuck." 

"You may choose your party to speak for, and have five 
minutes each. Start at the youngest, whom I think is a Pro- 
hibitionist. So Bennie commenced: "I am a Prohibition- 
ist. Liquor is a great evil. It will make a father kill his 
own wife; make a mother kill her own child. It brought 
more evil in the world than war; it fills the prisons, jails, 
and almshouses; it drives men to the mad house. It sends 
men to hell. I am a Prohibitionist." 

"Next!" said the farmer; and James started off with great 
earnestness: "I am a Republican! I belong to the party 
that put down the rebellion, paid the national debt, revived 
the industries, freed the slaves; made our nation's credit the 
highest in the world ; gave our nation as the home of the op- 
pressed all over the world." 

"Time!" called the father, and John, the oldest came up, 
saying with great deliberation: "I — am — a — Democrat. 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 251 

My father is a Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat. 
I am a Democrat because I want the woodchuck!" 



An Indian hearing a white man complain of hunger, 
said: "White man dum-big-fool ; he was always hungry 
when can get nothing to eat!" 



A trite old saying is, "Stick to your text." In a law suit 
many things happen to try one's patience; w T itty retorts, 
stinging replies, low personalities, may so engage counsel 
and jury as to obscure the case. Jurors take sides, and 
enter into outside discussions. The real winner after all is 
one that, with singleness of purpose, holds to his point and 
hugs the issue to the end. Harper's Weekly gave an excel- 
lent story of a lawyer selecting a clerk, that applies to this 
point admirably. The lawyer put a notice in an evening 
paper, saying that he would pay a small stipend to an active 
office clerk; next morning his office was crowded with ap- 
plicants — all bright, and many suitable. He bade them wait 
in a room until all should arrive, and then ranged them in 
a row and said, he would tell a story, and note the comments 
of the boys, and judge from that whom he would engage. 

"A certain farmer," began the lawyer, "was troubled with 
a red squirrel that got in through a hole in his barn and 
stole his seed corn; he resolved to kill that squirrel at the 
first opportunity. Seeing him go in at the hole one noon, 



252 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

he took his shot gun and fired away; the first shot set the 
barn on fire." 

"Did the barn burn?" said one of the boys. 

The lawyer, without answer, continued: "And seeing 
the barn on fire, the farmer seized a pail of water, and ran in 
to put it out." 

"Did he put it out?" said another. 

"As he passed inside the door shut to, and the barn was 
soon in full flames. When the hired girl rushed out with 
more water " 

"Did the hired girl burn up?" said another boy. 

The lawyer went on, without answer: "Then the old lady 
came out and all was noise and confusion, and everybody 
was trying to put out the fire." 

"Did they all burn up?" said another. 

The lawyer, hardly able to restrain his laughter, said: 
"There, there, that will do ; you have all shown great interest 
in the story," but, observing one little bright-eyed fellow in 
deep silence, he said, "Now, my little man what have you 
to say?" The little fellow blushed, grew uneasy, and stam- 
mered out, "I want to know what became of that squirrel, 
that's what I want to know." 

"You will do," said the lawyer; "you are my man; you 
have not been switched off by a confusion and a barn's burn- 
ing, and hired girls, and water pails; you have kept your 
eye on the squirrel." 

The story is packed full of excellent advice to beginners 
in the law, with a few good hints to older counsel. In 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 253 

every suit there is, or should be, one squirrel to kill, and no 

more. 

* * * 

It was midway in the Fremont campaign, and the old 
story that the Pathfinder had killed a lot of cows to keep 
his explorers from starving, was turned against the would-be 
president 

Fairfield was the speaker at the Fowles Grove, near Mos- 
cow, Southern Michigan. 

Midway in his address the speaker had pictured the rais- 
ing of the Stars and Stripes on Fremont Peak, when an old 
Democrat thought to check the spell of eloquence and yelled 
out, "What about them cows?" 

No attention was paid to it and again the farmer squeaked 
out: "Tell us about them cows, that Fremont stole on 
the mountains. Tell us about them cows." 

Fairfield turned half face to the intruder and said: "Has 
any farmer present got a new milch cow? If so, for God's 
sake drive her up and let that poor critter suck." 

The applause lasted many minutes. 



A sailor being asked, what, of all things he would wish 
tor, if given three wishes, said: 

"My first wish is 'tobacker' (all I want of it)." 
"My second, 'whiskey' (all I want of it)." 
"Well, what about the third wish?" said the questioner. 
"Let me see," mused the sailor, "More tobacker." 



254 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

Two boys stood on a street corner disputing. A benevo- 
lent stranger overheard it, and said: "Tut, tut, boys, don't 
quarrel, settle your differences; what's it all about, boys, 
anyway?" 

One boy spoke up, saying: "He says his grandfather was 
eighteen feet high, and I said, 'Oh, what a whopper/ why 
he could not stand in a house or lay in a bed, or see what was 
going on anyhow; but, I said, maybe he was that tall, it de- 
pends on where he growed up. In California the trees grow 
three hundred feet high and one hundred feet round, and my 
father killed a snake out there three miles long; and he said, 
'Oh, what a whopper.' " 

"Well, boys," said the stranger, "better harmonize your 
differences; can't you each come down a little?" 

Then the tall grandfather boy looked sullen, and the long 
snake boy said : "Then let him take off twelve feet from the 
height of his grandfather and I'll take a mile off my snake, 
and maybe we can agree." 



A tippler came into a protracted meeting rather late and 
heard the minister urging men and women to stand up and 
be prayed for. It being the first night, no one arose, until 
the misguided tippler arose and looking solemnly around, 
seeing only the minister standing, said: "Well, Elder, I 
guess you and I is in a hopeless minority this time, a hope- 
less minority." 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 
LOST BY LATIN. 



A passenger train ran over a farmer in Southern Illinois, 
way down near Egypt, killing the farmer and his team in- 
stantly, and almost derailing the passenger cars at the cross- 
ing. So terrible had been the destruction that but little 
trace of the team and wagon was in sight when the train 
backed up to view the accident. 

Suit was brought for damages, and a learned Chicago 
lawyer defended, closing his argument with the well-known 
plea: "What we claim for the company is that the corpus 
delicti (the Latin for the body of the offense) has not been 
made out by the evidence." The Latin was about as little 
known to the jury and plaintiff's counsel as we know of the 
inhabitants of Mars. But the young man's turn came next, 
and he began: "What is the defense to this damage case, 
gentlemen of the jury? It is not even claimed that the 
company is not in some way negligent. It is not even 
denied that they ran over that poor farmer. It is admitted 
that they tore his wagon all to splinters, and his horses all 
to pieces, and instantly killed the farmer, with their fast 
express train, but to get out of damages, they say: 'The 
corpus delicti' is not proved; is not made out. All the way 
from Chicago comes this great lawyer to tell you that 
story, gentlemen. But I tell you that when they backed up 
that train over the ruins of that wagon and the broken 
remains of the horses there, by that track there, in plain 



256 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

sight, there lay the corpus delicti, the farmer, and their own 
witnesses all swear to it, and we want a verdict for $10,000 
for it" — and he got it. 



"THE PINCH IN THE BENT/ 



Many years ago, on the banks of Lake Erie, at Buffalo, 
New York, a number of builders were engaged in raising 
a large warehouse. It was before the days of cranes and 
tackle-blocks — when heavy bents lifted by hand, with pike- 
poles. 

The foundation stood five or six feet from the ground 
level. The bents had all been put together in the afternoon, 
and all raised from the platform but the last one. The last 
bent was run out on blocks and timbers after being pinned 
together, and had to be lifted from the ground to a standing 
place. It was a hard day's work ; the lifting was heavy, the 
day was hot and tiresome, and when they came to the last 
bent they knew that the tug of war was before them, for 
they had lifted until they were lifted out, and felt that dizzy, 
trembling weakness that comes from over exertion. In 
raising the last bent they were starting almost at arm's 
length to begin with, and as they touched their hands to 
the work, the words rang out, "All ready! Pick 'er up! 
He-o-heave!" Up went the bent, four feet at the time. 
"Pick 'er up! He-o-heave!" and up she went, four feet 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 257 

higher. "Pick 'er up! He-o-heave!' But it went slower. 
"Now, once more! He-o-heave!" and it barely moved. 
The commander seized one of the posts and said in earnest, 
"Now, men, all together! Lift 'er up! He-o-heave!" But 
the bent hung in mid air — it was a dead lift, too high for 
short pikes, too low for long ones — out of reach by hands. 
They had reached the pinch in the bent. The captain 
aroused the men, and said: "Now, men, don't let this bent 
go down! When I say, 'set 'er up!' for God's sake lift! 
Now, set 'er up! He-o-heave!" But the bent trembled in 
mid air. Then the captain, seeing the danger, took in the 
situation at a glance. Turning around he saw a group of 
women and children looking on in breathless agony, and 
in his frenzy he said: "Mothers, if you would save your 
sons; sisters, if you would save your brothers; wives, if 
you would have your husbands home to-night, come and 
help us!" In an instant they came bounding like a flock 
of deers over the bridge, up the embankment — and seizing 
the pikes, they were ready for the lift. Then rang out the 
clear voice of the commander: "Now, men, your wives and 
children are in danger! Lift for your lives! He-o-heave!" 
and up she went. "Once more! He-o-heave! Set 'er up! 
Set 'er up! Steady! Steady! Round with your long pikes! 
In with the pin! There! Thank the women and girls for 
that!" 

Here we are in the midst of a "credit panic," not for want 
of crops, or produce; not for want of money or solvency; 
not for want of prosperity — if we could but set it in 

q 



258 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

motion — but for want of confidence. The business houses 
have almost "mortgaged their souls" to get money to pay 
help; and yet standing near by are hundreds of women, and 
weak men, who act very unlike men, who draw out and 
hide away the very money that would set business in motion. 
May we say to them, "We have reached the pinch in the 
bent; come and help us, and don't let this bent go down 
under the eyes of your carelessness, and crush the business 
of the country, and with it bring starvation to our work- 
ing people." 



THE MISER'S HAND. 



There is a beautiful tradition of a painting in Venice 
called the "Miser's Hand." By the story of the painting a 
very talented young man fell in love with a beautiful 
daughter of an old miser. The love was mutual; the day 
set; and still it remained to break the news to and gain the 
consent of the miser. The young man presented his case 
and the miser scorned it. "What! You, a pauper, would 
marry my daughter? No! No! I will have no paupers to 
inherit my patrimony! I will leave no entailment of pau- 
pers to my family!" 

The young people were greatly distressed. The young 
girl even attempted to commit suicide. She was rescued 
by an unknown stranger from drowning, and touched by 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 259 

her pitiful story, he promised to intercede for her and her 
lover with the father. Taking the couple to the miser, he 
presented their side and urged consent; but the miser was 
obdurate, and spurned them without pity, saying: "I will 
have no paupers in my family." 

"Then I perceive," said the stranger, "that it is the money 
and not the manhood you would have your daughter 
marry?" 

The miser shrugged his shoulders and growled. 

"But if he should bring you three thousand pistoles for 
his fortune, would you then consent?" 

"Three thousand pistoles! Three thousand pistoles!" ex- 
claimed the miser, "Yes, yes, I would consent." 

Drawing a piece of parchment from his pocket, the stran- 
ger sketched a hand upon it with crayon, and held it in front 
of the miser, who exclaimed: "My God! It is my hand! 
It is my own hand !" 

And sure enough, it was an old withered hand, half open, 
in the act of catching a shower of gold. 

"Take it to the keeper of St. Mark," said the stranger to 
the lover, "and sell it for three thousand pistoles," which 
they promptly did, and laid the money in the lap of the 
miser, who consented, and the young couple were married, 
and were happy. 

The stranger was Michael Angelo. The painting hung 
for years in Venice, and was captured in war by enemies, 
and now only a tradition remains of it; yet the legend is 
beautiful. It shows that fine finish and talent and perfection 



260 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

in anything is always rewarded, and brings gain to its 
owner, and happiness to all who come within its influence. 



'Truth forever on the scaffold, 
Wrong forever on the throne ; 
Yet the scaffold sways the future, 

And behind the dim unknown, 
Standeth God, within the shadow, 

Keeping watch above his own.' ; 



'Words are but leaves, 
Deeds are the fruit." 



Words are the shadows of actions." 



Lycurgus, the law-giver, to convince his King of the 
value of training and education, said: 

"I would show thee, oh King, the value of habit and 
training upon a people, for as their training is, so will they 
be all thro' their lives. I would show thee by the example 
of my little dogs." 

The King, being a lover of dogs, said: "Bring in your 
dogs." 

The dogs were sent for, when Lycurgus said: "This little 
dog on my left has been petted and fondled, and fed on 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING 261 

bread and milk, and kept in the house. This little dog on my 
right, his own brother, has been taken to the chase and 
taught to hunt the hare and bring it to his master — to make 
his way in the world by hunting. Now bring in a platter of 
bread and milk, and a live hare," which being done, and 
the milk placed furthest from the house dog, and the hare 
furthest from the hunting dog, the law-giver said: "Now 
let go the dogs," which being done, the house dog ran at 
once to the milk platter, and never stopped until he had 
eaten all of it; and the hunting dog made chase for the hare 
and stopped not until he had caught it and laid it at his 
master's feet. And Lycurgus said: "You see, oh, King, that 
as their habit is, and as their training is, so will they be all 
through their lives ; and so also it is with men and children." 

^ >£ ^ 

"Give your child to a slave to be trained," said one, "and 
you will have two slaves." 

"We settled near a cemetery," said another, "and our little 
boys, on seeing the solemn processions file in day after day, 
soon learned to imitate burial forms, and I said, 'this will 
not do. Our children will grow up with long, solemn 
faces.' So we settled near a market place, and soon the 
boys began to imitate hucksters in crying out their pre- 
tended wares, and I said, 'this is too rude; this will not do.' 
So we settled near a school house, and soon the boys began 
to attend exercises, and followed by declamations and de- 
bates, and I said: 'Now are we well situated; the boys will 



262 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

acquire habits of learning and usefulness, and take on a 
higher life. " 



At a salesmen's banquet they had all spoken, and wittily 
withal. 

The last toast was: "To the Ladies." The modest young 
man said: 

"The Lord made the earth in six days, and said it was 
good, and rested. He made man and said he was good, 
and rested. He then made woman out of a rib of man, but 
no mention is made of his resting, and there has been no 
rest for God nor man ever since." 



It was over in San Francisco at a banquet. They had 
extolled the fruit and flowers and tall trees, and gold and 
silver, and the beauty of nature, and the modest Michigan 
Governor (Luce) said: "In speaking for my State, she may 
not have as many mines of gold and silver; she may not be 
blessed with as many tall mountains; she may not have so 
many broad acres of climate, or leagues of wild flowers, 
but Michigan can boast one thing that surpasses all such 
beauties: The Michigan boys can look into the bright, 
dancing eyes of more handsome girls and women, than 
any other section on earth." 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 263 

Illustrations are the windows of thought. 

The air, when heard, speaks in tones of thunder. 

* * * 

"Does that man defend me?" said the prisoner. "Yes," 
said the court. "If he should die, can I have another ap- 
pointed?" "Yes." "Can I see him a minute alone?" 



A farmer found on a tombstone: "Here lies a lawyer and 
an honest man." He seemed puzzled and said : 
"Why did they put two such men in one grave?" 



Several little school girls were going to be late to school. 
One of them proposed: "Let us kneel down and pray that 
we may not be marked tardy." "No," said another, "let 
us skin out and get there and pray as we go." 

^ >& >k 

Mamma, hasn't God improved awfully since he made 
papa? 

5fc ^ ^ 

If a stranger should tell a young man before starting in 
life that he knew of a fortune, an inheritance, worth many 
thousand on conditions that the young man should do 
something to inherit it, how anxiously he would act. Yet 
all American bovs have a fortune on condition. 



264 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

THE STORY OF A KING. 



"I read long ago in the German of a kind young king, 
among the Huns, who was so loved by his people, that 
they gave him a golden throne and a silver crown; that, 
soon after, he died in his prime, and the people said : "We 
will have no king. None other can fill his place." 

Two years they waited and at last they longed for a 
king. At last they voted to select a king, provided one 
could be found whom the elements obeyed and the animals 
would love. 

To find such a king search was made in all the cities and 
hamlets round about, but without avail. Then men in 
pairs were sent through the fields and woods, but returned 
without a king. Then at last, they searched in the moun- 
tains, till one day two searchers for the king were overtaken 
by a dreadful storm of wind and hail and snow, that drove 
them for shelter into a cave way up on the mountain side. 
In the cave they found a little man dressed in furs. He gave 
them generous welcome, saying: "Come in and wait 'til the 
storm goes by." He gave them bread to eat, and a bed of 
furs to sleep upon and said, "Rest 'til the storm goes by !" 

They fell asleep, but about two o'clock in the night they 
were awakened by a terrible roar and noise outside. They 
rose on their elbows and said: 

"We shall be killed! We shall be killed! This is a rob- 
ber's cave!" Then the little man in furs came out, saying, 
"What is this I hear? What is this complaint?" 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 265 

"Hear you the noise outside?" said the searchers for a 
king, still trembling in fear. 

Going to the cave door and sliding it, the little man in 
furs exclaimed: 

"Oh, I see! Bears, wolves, tigers, lions, wild animals 
out in the storm! Come in! Come in, out of the storm! 
Come in, you lions ! Come in and wait till the storm goes 
by!" 

Instantly the bears, lions, tigers and wolves hurried in. 
The lions licked the little man's hands. He stroked the 
tigers on the back. The wolves huddled around like little 
lambs. 

"Take your places in the corner there," said the man in 
furs, which they did and seemed delighted to be in out of 
the storm, and all slept again 'til morning. 

In the morning the animals were let out. A hole was 
made in the ceiling and bright rays of the sun shone in. It 
was focused in a glass and a fire lighted from a piece of 
punk; a meal of meat was cooked; the men were treated 
to a substantial meal and then shown outside, where the 
water in summer was caught in a fountain that sheep and 
cattle and animals and men could drink. 

The searchers for a king were about to go. They re- 
membered to pay their bill. 

"What shall we pay you for your kindness and entertain- 
ment like this?" asked the men. 

The little man straightened up and said with great force, 
very slowly: "Pay — me — for — kindness? O, sirs, there is 



266 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

no payment for kindness save in kindness to somebody 
else! Go your way, and when you find people in distress, 
so deal with them as has been done to you in this storm, 
with the injunction, that you bid them all continue the kind- 
ness to the end of time." 

The little man bowed and returned to his cave. 

The searchers for a king- returned to their city and knew 
not what they had seen; but the people, always wiser than 
one or two, threw up their hands, exclaiming: 

"Make him our king! Make him our king! Kindness 
has made him worthy to be king!'' 

So they sent the men once more up the steep mountain 
side and brought back the little man in furs, placed him 
upon the golden throne, put upon his head a silver crown, 
in honor of his kindness. 



THE FOX AND THE BELL. 



This story was used once on a prolix debater with great 
force and effect. He never fully rallied from its effect in 
the immediate circle who heard it told. Pie was no longer 
their separate hero. Here it is: 

A fox found a bell in the woods covered with leaves. 
It so excited his curiosity that he turned it over and over 
and each time came a hollow sound that seemed to startle 
him and the fox thus soliloquised: "What is that infernal 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 267 

* 
thing? Its noise don't belong to the animal nor the mineral 

kingdom! It neither resembles one nor the other. It's all 
noise and tongue. I'll name it! I'll call it the long- 
tongued, hollow-headed devil and let it go." 

In the roar which followed the point was apparent. But 
the speaker applied it: Who is this strange freak who 
inveighs against capital and labor? Who is this law 
breaker? Is he a laborer? His lilly white hands deny it. 
His long, slick tongue alone proclaims it. I will name his 
argument. I'll call it the long-tongued, white-handed, hol- 
low-headed thing — unknown to reason, applicable to 
nothing, nowhere and to nobody — a long-tongued, hollow- 
headed reason and let it go. 



PLEADING EXTRAORDINARY.— (Selected.) 



(Useful on a recall for young speakers.) 

May it please the Court, Gentlemen of the Jury: 

You sit in that box as the great reservoir of 'Roman 
liberty, Spartan fame and Grecian polytheism. You are 
to swing the great flail of justice and electricity over this 
immense community in hydraulic majesty and incongugal 
superfluity. You are to ascend the deep arcana of nature 
and dispose of my client with equiponderating concatena- 
tion and reverberating momentum. Such, gentlemen, is 



268 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

your sedative and stimulating character; my client is only 
a man with domestic eccentricities and matrimonial con- 
figuration, not permitted, as you are, gentlemen, to bask 
in the primeval and lowest vales of society; he has to 
endure the red hot sun of the universe, seated on the 
heights of nobility and feudal eminence! He has a wife of 
matrimonial propensities that henpecks the remainder of 
his days with soothing and bewitching verbosity. 

He has a family of domestic children that gather around 
the fireside of his peaceful homicide in tumultuous con- 
sanguinity and cry with screaming and reverberating mo- 
mentum for bread, butter and molasses. Such, gentlemen, 
is the glowing and overwhelming character and defear- 
ance of my client, who stands here indicted by this perse- 
cuting pettifogger of this court, who is as much inferior 
to me as I am exterior to the judge, and you, gentlemen of 
the jury. This borax of the law has brought witnesses 
into this court, who swore my client stole a firkin of butter ; 
but I say they swore to a lie, every one of them, and the 
truth is concentrated within them, and I will prove it by a 
learned expectoration of the principles of law. 

Now, butter is made of grass, and it is laid down in 
St. Peter Pinder in his principles of subterraneous law, 
pages 1 8 to 27 inclusive, that grass is couchant and levant, 
which means, in our obicular tongue, that grass is of a 
mild and free nature, and therefore you see that my client 
had a right to grass and butter both. Again, butter is 
made of grease, and Greece is a foreign country situated 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 269 

in the far off and amaciated country of Liberia and Cali- 
fornia, and therefore my client is out of the benediction 
of this court and cannot be tried in this horizon. 

I will now bring forward the ulimantum respondenti and 
cap the great climax of logic by quoting an inconceivable 
maxim of law laid down in Latin in Hannibal, Hudibras, 
Blackstone and Sangrado. It is this, heck, hock, morus, 
multicalus, emensa et thoro guta bega sentum; which 
means in English, that ninety-nine men are guilty where 
one is innocent. It is therefore your duty, gentlemen, to 
convict ninety-nine men first, then you come to my client, 
who is innocent, and acquit according to the law. 

If these great principles shall be duly appreciated by 
this court, then the great north pole of liberty that has 
stood so many years in pneumatic tallness shall continue 
to stand the wreck of the Indian invasion; the pirates of 
the Hypoborian seas, and the marauders of the Aurora 
Boliver. But, gentlemen, if you convict my client, his 
children will be obliged to pine away in a state of hopeless 
matrimony and his beautiful wife will stand alone and de- 
serted like a dried up mullen stalk in a sheep pasture. 
"Not guilty." 



270 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 



THE HIGHER— THE GRANDER. 



THE HIGHER WE RISK THE GRANDER THE VIEW." 



(Address to a High School Graduating Class.) 

What a beautiful class motto that is ! It carries us all with 
a single sentence to the highest ambition of your class. It 
is like the old copies that tell you to "aim at the sun" — "nail 
your banner to the stars" — "think to the front," and by 
aiming and thinking you attain a higher station-dn anything. 

I congratulate this class on such a lofty ambition. Table 
Rock, at Harper's Ferry, is 200 feet straight upward, reached 
by a steep hill. From its summit one can look out over the 
Shenandoah River and the valley beyond on the south, 
Maryland Hights on the east, West Virginia on the west, 
and Pennsylvania on the north. With the inspiring 
grandeur of the scene, high up between heaven and earth, 
Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 119 years ago! He must have believed in your 
motto — "The Higher we Rise, the Grander the View! 

There is a poetic beauty in the scene, to look downward 
and see the Shenandoah River and the rapid Potomac 
marry under the iron bridge and go in one river from there 
to Washington on their wedding tour. 

In the little park on Broadway and Sixteenth street, New 
York, in the year '82, I saw a monster hand and forearm. 
It was made of iron and bronze and had but little meaning, 



SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 271 

except it was an arm larger than a man's body and fingers 
larger than human arms, and later, in 1890, I saw it again, 
when it stood on Bedloe's Island, upon a mighty stone 
monument 150 feet high — higher than the tallest buildings, 
or the Colossus at Rhodes — in all 306 feet high, where the 
statue of Liberty is holding a torch of powerful light and 
is called "Liberty Enlightening the World.'' 

There is another place that Americans all admire — the 
Washington monument — higher than St. Paul's Cathedral 
tower, higher than the hanging gardens of Babylon, higher 
than the Pyramids of Egypt. 

From the top of that monument, one may see the White 
House, the Capitol, the Soldiers' Home, the Departments 
of State, the Soldiers' Burial Ground at Arlington Hights, 
and off into different States ; but more than all, one can see 
a love of country and a desire to perpetuate the deeds of 
its mighty men. Cars look like toys from its summit, 
horses look like little dogs, and men like tiny children, but 
the nation looks larger than ever before from this grand 
and inspiring view. 

All these figures portray altitude of objects. But your 
motto means a higher, brighter view of life. Education 
makes one fit company for himself. You learn to live 
better, to know things more clearly, to comprehend the 
duty of your lives, to be happier, wiser, better, every day. 
Reader Crossman o'nce said : "I never knew what the stars 
of heaven meant 'til I looked through the great Lick 
observatorv from Mount Hamilton, California. From that 



272 SPEECHES AND SPEECH-MAKING. 

powerful glass I saw a million worlds hanging in space, 
beside which our earth is like a little marble." 

"The Higher we Rise, the Grander the View," in any- 
thing. The early studies are like going into a tunnel — 
dark, and deep, and dismal. The later ones let us out into 
daylight, into sunlight, into wisdom, into comprehension. 
The alphabet is the dullest part of any language. The first 
step over, the rest is easy. Then, as Webster said at 
Bunker Hill, "Let it rise till it meet the sun in his coming." 
So, let us rise, and rise till we meet the sun in the glory of 
his coming! 



Eloquence ant> IRepartee in tbe 



Hmerican Congress- 



By WM. C. SPRAGUE. 



This book contains selections from the brilliant addresses 
and debates in the 42d Congress — a Congress known in 
history as a brilliant one. This Congress contained some 
of the best orators from the North and South that have ever 
occupied seats in the United States Congress. The occas- 
sions of the addresses and debates from which selections are 
made were largely those that grew out of the war. This 
was the date of the discussion on universal amnesty to those 
who had taken part in the rebellion ; the discussion that grew 
out of the Kit Klux Klan ; the discussion of reform of the 
civil service, that marked the beginnings of the great liberal 
Republican party, under the lead of such men as Sumner, 
Schurz, etc., etc. Among the speeches from which selections 
are made are those of Thomas F. Bayard, Francis P. Blair, 
Jr., Simon Cameron, Mat H. Carpenter, Zachariah Chandler, 
James W. Nye, Roscoe Conkling, George F. Edmunds, John 
A. Logan, Oliver P. Morton, Carl Schurz, John Sherman, 
John W. Stevenson, Charles Sumner, Allen G. Thurman, 
Lyman Trumbull, Henry Wilson, Nathaniel P. Banks, 
James B. Beck, Austin Blair, Benjamin F. Butler, S. S. Cox, 
H. L. Dawes, John F. Farnsworth, Charles Foster, James 
A. Garfield, George F. Hoar, William D. Kelley, Horace 
Maynard, Luke P. Poland, J. H. Rainey, Samuel J. Randall, 
William A. Wheeler, Fernando Wood, and others. 

Here will be found the finest models for young orators 
to study, as well as historical incidents worthy of reading 
and study. Only such debates are quoted as are replete 
with sharp or witty repartee, and only such quotations are 
made as evince eloquence of a high order. No one who 
delights in reading speeches or who desires models upon 
which to form his own style should be without this book. 

Price, $1.50, delivered. 

Published and for sale by 

The Collector Publishing Co., Detroit, Mich. 



jflasbes of Mit from 
Bencb anb Bar. 



By WM. C. SPRAGUE. 

There is compressed into this work hundreds of the purest, 
brightest, happiest examples of wit and humor ever collected be- 
tween the covers of a book. Nearly all of the examples are taken 
from actual life, the most of them being incidents from court life. 
There is no place where true wit is more frequent than in every day 
court scenes. There is scarcely a case, however serious its nature, 
but has its funny witness or its play of humor between counsel, 
and ofttimes the court itself is caught turning a good jest to relieve 
the usual monotony of the court room. 

It is well known that nothing so well adorns a speech, enlivens 
conversation, or relieves the monotony as pure humor from actual 
life. The lawyer who is called upon so frequently to speak in pub- 
lic must needs study and practice the story-telling habit. The most 
conspicuous element of Mr. Depew's after-dinner speaking is his 
aptness of illustration and his success at story-telling. Judiciously 
used, wit has won lawsuits and in public speech and conversation 
is a sure road to favor. This, with a good personality, good enunci- 
ation, and rapid, telling gestures, makes the banquet speaker sans 
pareil. In this book may be found a mine of telling illustrations, 
with several hearty laughs for every one cent of its purchase price. 

The man with a good story is always welcome; he always has 
friends; he is never at a loss for an attentive audience; he is pre- 
pared for any emergency in conversation or in speech making. A 
good fund of humor may cover much inconsistency, and may even 
make ignorance brilliant. A jury is always on the side of good- 
humored counsel. Tons of philosophic argument and ponderous 
reasoning have been overthrown by well-turned humor. 

PRICE, $1.50 

Published and for sale by 

THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., 

DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 



THE BEST STUDENTS' HELPS IN THE WORLD 

Zhe <SllU33er Series. 

The Quizzer series is a series of question and answer books on 
the various branches of the law, designed for students preparing 
for examination for admission to the bar, or for advanced stand- 
ing in law schools, or for review in connection with text-books and 
lectures. They are compiled by Wm. C. Sprague, A. B., LL. B., 
and Griffith Ogden Ellis, LL. B., instructors in The Sprague Cor- 
respondence School of Law. 

These Quiz books are prepared on a new plan. Each Quiz 
book is made up of two parts, the first part being pages of ques- 
tions interleaved with blank pages, the second part being pages of 
answers numbered to correspond with the questions. By this meth- 
od the student may examine himself and prove his proficiency. 

These Quiz books are used in many of the law schools, and 
by hundreds of students who are pursuing the study of law in 
law offices and alone, and by lawyers who are reviewing. 

The following Quiz books are ready: 

Quizzer A on Book 1 of Blackstone's Commentaries. 



B ' 


* a 


2 " 


C ' 


' " 


3 " 


D 


' " 


4 " 


E 


' " 


1 " Kent's Commentaries. 


F ' 


i « 


2 " 


G 


' " 


3 " 


H 


' " 


4 " 


No. 


1, on 


Domestic Relations. 


No. 


2, on 


Criminal Law. 


No. 


3, on 


Torts. 


No. 


4, on 


Real Property. 


No. 


5, on 


Constitutional Law. 


No. 


6, on 


Contracts. 


No, 


7, on 


Evidence. 


No. 


8, on 


Common Law Pleading. 


" No. 


9, on 


Corporations. 


No. 


10, on 


Negotiable Instruments. 


No. 


12, on 


Agency. 


No. 


13, on 


Partnership. 


No. 


14, on 


Sales of Personal Property. 


No. 


15, on 


Equity. 


Others in preparation. 




Price 


of Each, 50 Cents. 



COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., Publishers, 

DETROIT, MICH. 



Zhe Xaw Stubent's Ibelper. 

The Law Student's Helper is a monthly publication con- 
taining from 30 to 50 pages per month of bright original 
matter of interest to young men, and especially to law stu- 
dents and lawyers. It is the organ of the law students' asso- 
ciations and law clubs of the country, and is the only paper 
containing news of the doings of law students in colleges 
and clubs. It contains a splendid resume from month to 
month of current items of interest to young men. It is edu- 
cative in its character and seeks to do for young men what 
the Youth's Companion does for boys and girls. It is the 
strongest and best paper for young men that has ever been 
put in their hands. Its success has been marked — its sub- 
scription list reaching the highest point ever reached by a 
law publication. The paper is not for law students only, but 
for young men generally. Every page of it is of interest 
and profit to them. It is not built for the purpose of 
merely filling subscription orders, but for the purpose of in- 
structing and elevating its readers. That it does this is evi- 
denced by hundreds of testimonials from leading educators 
throughout the, country who read it and recommend it to 
students. 

Sample copy, 10 cents. 

Subscription rate, per annum, $1.00. 

Published by 

THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., 

DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 



Zhc Collector anb 
Commercial Hawser 

1. It is the greatest legal news medium in America, 
containing over ioo pages every month of legal news from 
everywhere. 

2. It is full of practical suggestions to the lawyer, en- 
abling him to do better work and more effectively and profit- 
ably. 

3. It has created wonderful interest and enthusiasm in 
its field by originality in conception, and enterprise in 
methods. 

4. Thousands of lawyers eagerly look for its monthly 
coming, knowing full well its power to stimulate and en- 
courage, and the wholesome feast of good things it always 
contains. 

mc Want Igou to TReao 1tt! 

We know you will profit by it and enjoy it. A subscrip- 
tion to it is money well spent. 

The subscription price at the beginning (nearly 7 years 
ago) was $1.00. The first number contained 4 pages. The 
subscription price is still $1.00, but the number of pages for 
the past six months has averaged no each number. 

OVER 1400 PAGES OF BRIGHT ftl (]() 
ORIGINAL MATTER FOR ... * I,UU 

Address 

THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., Publishers 

DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 



^Useful IlBooks, 

STOCK-HOLDERS' MEETINGS; How to Call and How to 
Conduct Them. Paper bound: 18 pages. 25 Cents. 

SHALL 1 SlTDl' LAW? By One Who Has Tried. This book 
is written for young men who are thinking of taking up the law 
as a special study, and gives reasons for and against it, and prac- 
tical instructions to enable the young man to know what to do in 
answer to this question. Paper bound: US) pages. Price 50 Cents. 

OUR NATIONAL CHARTERS; Containing the Declaration 
of Independence; The Articles of Confederation; The Constitution 
and Amendments; Washington's Farewell Address; Dictatorship 
Conferred on Washington; Ordinance of 1787; The Monroe Doc- 
trine; Emancipation Proclamation. Price, 50 Cents. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION TO THE BAR; Giving 
the Rules and Regulations in All the States and Territories. 
Price, 50 Cents. 

SKILL IN TRIALS. By J. W. Donovan: Author of "Speeches 
#nd Speech-Making," "Modern Jury Trials," etc. This book con- 
tains a variety of civil and criminal cases won by the art of ad- 
vocates; with some examples of the skill of Webster, Choate, 
Beach, Butler, Curtis. Day is, Fountaine, and others, given in 
sketches of their work and trial stories; with new selections of 
Western eloquence. Price, $1.00. 

TACT IN COURT (4th Edition, Enlarged). By J. W. Dono- 
van. Being the gist of cases won by skill, art, wit, tact, courage, 
and eloquence; with trial rules, and able advice of ingenious ad- 
vocates to trial lawyers. A striking picture of brilliant men in 
court; how they handle witnesses, and convince juries with their 
tact, described. Portraits of Fuller, Curtis, Blackburn, and 
others. Price, $1.00. 

MODERN JURY TRIALS AND ADVOCATES. By J. W. 
Donovan (4th Edition). This work of 700 pages is made up of 
forty condensed trials, each with the advocates graphically de- 
scribed, giving their art, skill, and eloquence. The cases are 
selected with extreme care from the most noted trials of twenty- 
five years. About one hundred of the leading advocates are de- 
scribed, and samples of their eloquence given. A large part of 
the book is given to rules of practice, and the art of selecting 
juries and winning cases. Thirty-four pages of eloquent closing 
periods conclude the volume. This book has had an immense 
sale, not only in this country, but abroad. Law sheep binding, 
$4.50. 

Published and for sale by 

THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., 

DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 



